It’s the first day of the SNP’s annual conference and it’s already going off the rails: members of the SNP’s LGBTQ+ wing Out for Independence have written a public letter to Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford demanding they remove the SNP whip from Joanna Cherry following her comments on conversion therapy. They’re also calling for an investigation into transphobia within the party…

The letter accuses Cherry of making multiple “transphobic statements”, and points to a tweet earlier this month where Cherry claimed:

“We must not make it a criminal offence for therapists to try to help patients with gender dysphoria to feel comfortable in their birth sex.”

This, according to Out for Independence, amounts to Cherry calling for “conversion therapy aimed at transgender people to be exempt [from a ban] and that legislation on conversion therapy in general must be paused”… 

In a later newspaper column, Joanna clarified her views:

“Of course I’m against conversion therapy. What I want to preserve is therapy for young girls who are gender confused. Please ignore the distortions & the witch hunt…I am concerned that young women, particularly those who may be lesbians, should be offered alternatives to such drastic medical pathways, and that their teachers, parents and therapists should not be threatened with prison and fines for discussing these options with them.”

The activists, some of whom are also members of the Scottish Greens, have insisted that the National Secretary investigate Cherry for all this after the whip is withdrawn. So much for ignoring “the distortions and the witch hunt”…