Defending freedoms in Scotland amid proposals to ban conversion practices. Protecting people and protecting freedoms should not be competing objectives.
Scotland
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We often take our freedoms for granted.
The right to speak your mind, practise your faith, question authority and raise your family according to your values.
Which freedom matters most to you, and why?
Protect All Freedoms will defend fundamental freedoms, including religious liberty, family life and free speech.
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10) Protects Against Ideological Conformity
No political, religious or philosophical worldview should be beyond criticism.
Free speech protects the right to question prevailing orthodoxies and ensures that disagreement is not mistaken for wrongdoing.
9) Improves Policymaking
Good policymaking requires scrutiny and challenge.
Free speech allows competing perspectives to be heard, unintended consequences to be identified and legislation to be improved.
8) Challenges Prejudice and Discrimination
Free speech allows people to expose injustice, challenge discriminatory attitudes and campaign for equal treatment.
It is an essential tool for those seeking to bring about social change.
7) Enables Cultural Expression
Our culture is enriched by literature, art, music, comedy, satire and creative expression.
Free speech allows artists and creators to challenge conventions, explore ideas and push boundaries.
6) Promotes Peaceful Disagreement
Disagreement is inevitable in a free society.
Free speech provides a means of expressing grievances, challenging ideas and resolving differences through debate rather than intimidation or violence.
5) Strengthens Social Understanding
A society made up of people with different beliefs and experiences must be able to discuss them openly.
Free speech creates opportunities to listen, understand and learn from one another.
4) Prevents the Concentration of Power
When governments or institutions control what can be said, they gain enormous influence over what people can think and debate.
Free speech prevents any one authority from monopolising public discourse.
3) Protects Minority Opinions
The rights of minorities cannot depend on the approval of the majority.
Free speech protects unpopular, unconventional and dissenting opinions from being silenced simply because they are not widely accepted.
2) Encourages the Pursuit of Truth
Truth is not established by silencing disagreement.
Free speech allows competing arguments to be tested, evidence to be examined and assumptions to be challenged.
1) Holds Power Accountable
Free speech allows journalists, campaigners and ordinary citizens to scrutinise those in power, expose wrongdoing and challenge abuses of authority.
Without free speech, accountability becomes much harder.
We often hear that free speech is important but we don't spend enough time explaining why it matters.
Free speech is not simply about the right to say what you think. It is fundamental to a free, democratic and open society.
Here are 10 reasons why. 🧵
Protect All Freedoms retweeted
The front page of today’s Daily Telegraph:
‘Calls to scrap ‘chilling’ trans law’
#TomorrowsPapersToday
Protect All Freedoms retweeted
Parents must be free to ask questions about their child’s sexuality and express loving concern. Caring for a child is a parent’s role, not the state’s.
The Conversion Practices Bill, now undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny in Parliament, aims to outlaw abusive practices intended to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. But it does not distinguish between minors and adults, or exempt parents from liability.
As Kathleen Stock points out, the bill identifies “psychological or emotional pressure” — a perfectly standard parenting tool — as potentially indicative of abuse, particularly where it causes “serious harm to the individual’s … mental health” or “serious alarm or distress”. If these vague and subjective terms become law, the result for tired families dealing with volatile, self-destructive teenagers could be “thermonuclear”.
It is entirely normal for parents to ask their children about their beliefs, exercise parental responsibility and show a duty of care through well-intentioned conversations.
Abusive conversion practices are already illegal. So what would this bill achieve?
It will see parents who try to dissuade their children from embarking on life-changing, dangerous and irreversible medical pathways face up to five years in prison.
As Kathleen Stock writes: “It is no business of the state to be hounding parents who disagree with their teenager’s dramatic announcement of lasting same-sex attraction”.
Read more in @thetimes 👇
These calls highlight the prospect of a Scottish Bill going further than UK proposals, with potential risks to free speech, religious liberty and family life.
Follow Protect All Freedoms and visit our website to find out more about our campaign: firinnconsultancy.co.uk/prot…