Interview
that wasn’t always true. I have a lot of
respect for them. We are all a product of
our parents to a certain extent and I owe
them a lot for the values and interest in
politics that they gave me.”
However, apart from a brief flirtation
with the Labour Party while at university
in Manchester, an experience which he
describes as an “off-putting experience”,
Harvie put party politics to one side until
he joined the Green Party following the
Section 28 debacle and agreed to stand
in the 2003 Scottish Parliament elec-
tions. He was duly elected as list MSP
for Glasgow and walked straight into
controversy, with his sexuality used as a
stick to beat him when he proposed a Bill
on civil partnerships.
Scotland on Sunday columnist Gerald
Warner said that the Greens, “after two
weeks in the political sun, have turned
Pink, proposing legislation for homosex-
ual ‘marriage’. Here it comes – Section
29! What was that wise saying about for-
It’
null
s an
getting nothing and learning nothing?” incongruous
Another columnist described him
vision; little
as a “militant gay activist turned MSP”
Patrick
who “wants gay couples to be allowed to
Harvie, the
take part in civil ceremonies that would
give them the same legal rights as mar-
very out gay
It’s an incongru-
ous vision; little
ried couples…Patrick Harvie may have
in the
Patrick Harvie, the
been elected to Holyrood under the political
very out gay in the
umbrella of the Green Party, but one
village,
political village,
look at his CV suggests his real passion
propping up the
propping pool table with a
is not environmental reform but the cru-
sade for gay rights”.
up the pool
pint in his hand
Harvie’s own personal favourite was
table with a
the label the Daily Mail gave him as “the pint in his
voice of the irresponsible, left led, anti-
hand
family, anti-Christian, gay whales against
the bomb coalition”.
“This kind of reporting is just silly
null
diocese were furious at the way the hier- In a newsletter to supporters, Har-
and I am sure a lot of Daily Mail readers archy were getting involved on specific greaves said: “Patrick Harvie tried to get
know it is bullshit,” he says. “It is kind of agendas around social conservative val- the Archbishop of Glasgow arrested for
annoying and I would rather the news- ues when they were people motivated by preaching that homosexuality is a sin.
papers were talking about green poli- global injustice, by war and Trident and “We are out to undermine the
tics rather than green politicians but I protection of asylum seekers and the Greens because they let in a secularist
wouldn’t expect it to be otherwise. devastation of environmental destruc- fundamentalist gay rights activist under
“There are a few figures in the hier- tion, those are the great moral issues of a Green flag of convenience. We will
archy of the Catholic Church who the our time and to be finger wagging about expose him.”
press will go to for a reactionary quote who goes to bed with who, is just plain Harvie was re-elected.
about me but the great mass of religious daft.” That personal victory was, however,
people in Scotland are far more level Regardless of Harvie’s level headed tarnished by the fact that the Green Par-
headed and don’t like being told how to and far too understanding approach to ty’s presence in the Scottish Parliament
vote by religious figures and are much his critics, he undoubtedly engenders was decimated. Having had seven Green
more open about some of the arguments strong feelings. So much so that George MSPs, they returned only two, Harvie
we in the Greens want to put to them, Hargreaves, the founder of the Scot- and Robin Harper.
whether it’s about sex education, equal- tish Christian Party, and the man who “It felt shit!” he says. “It was a shock
ity, the economy or SUVs. bizarrely penned the gay anthem, ‘So because I had genuinely thought we
“It’s a shame because even back dur- Macho’, stood against Harvie in the would hold our position or pick up an
ing the Section 28 campaign, I knew 2007 elections on the grounds that Har- extra couple of seats – how wrong you
people who were working in the arch- vie’s open bisexuality made him sinful. can be. I also lost £50 on a bet at the
20
| 17 November 2008 | Holyrood magazine | www.holyrood.com |
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