A GLASGOW MSP has told how he was forced to walk past billboards demanding children were "protected" from gay people while employed as a youth worker.

Speaking at a debate on LGBT history month in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, Patrick Harvie said more must be done to ensure the rights of LGBT people.

The Green politician said: "[When employed as a youth worker] I had to walk passed billboards that read 'protect our children'. That meant that they should be protected from people like me.

"There were echoes of that nasty homophobic campaign in Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 party conference speech, when she complained: 'Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay' ... Those issues resonate and echo through time.

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"Telling the stories of our history is so important, because it grounds us in who we are and where we come from, but learning the lessons of history matters even more.

"The lessons from those few examples tell me that we must stand together—that is the only way that we will make progress."

Mr Harvie and fellow Glasgow MSP Tory Annie Wells agreed the city was progressive in ensuring the safety and well-being of its LGBT community but there was still "some way to go".

Ms Wells said: "As well as celebration, LGBT history month provides an opportunity to address where our priorities should lie.

"LGBTI people are still affected by discrimination, prejudice, hate crime and social isolation, and in rural areas in particular there is still much more to be done by way of making progress.

"In 2015, 18 per cent of the Scottish population still believed that sexual relations between two adults of the same sex is always wrong. Prejudice about trans rights is even more prevalent, with little public awareness of what it is like to be a trans person."

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She added: "Using politics as a marker, we see that although inroads have been made with the representation of gay people in the Scottish Parliament, we are yet to see an openly trans or intersex politician in Scotland.

"The Gender Recognition Act 2004 still needs discussion in Parliament in terms of reforming the process by which a person can change their legal gender without intrusive medical assessment."

However, the delay into a review of the bill was accused of allowing "fear and ignorance" to grow in terms of transgender rights.

Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: "I understand why the Government has postponed the bill—the Government wants to get the legislation right, because it is incredibly sensitive—but the Government needs to understand that the delay has created a vacuum.

"In that vacuum, fear and ignorance are growing. People’s understanding of what the proposals are and what they will mean is festering in an unhelpful way.

"I know that the cabinet secretary probably agrees with that ... Collectively in the Parliament, we need to do much more."

The motion, put forward by the SNP's mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP Jenny Gilruth, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York and celebrate groups marking LGBT history month was passed.

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