The Queer Industrial Complex

A glimpse into the state funded industry dedicated to changing our society.

The “Worst Ever” Abuse

The case was dubbed the “worst ever” child sexual abuse trial in Scotland. The Scotsman Newspaper, reporting in May 2009 described it thus:

THINK of a description such as vile, disgusting or revolting. Multiply it ten times, a hundred, a thousand. You are beginning to scratch the surface of just how bad it has been for jurors, and others, over the past nine weeks in what many believe was Scotland's worst child sex abuse trial.

This involved a large network of abusers. There were tens of thousands of indecent images of children, many hours of chat logs, and countless e-mails. The men convicted are shown below:

Top, from left: Neil Campbell, Neil Strachan, Ross Webber, John Murphy. Bottom, from left: James Rennie, John Milligan, Craig Boath, Colin Slaven

One of these men is called James Rennie. He was trusted by a couple he had known for many years and was regularly asked to babysit their son. He abused the child and took photographs and videos of his acts and circulated them to others. The wee boy was three months old at the time.

James Rennie was also the Chief Executive Officer of LGBT Youth Scotland. This was formerly called the Stonewall Youth Project. It is a registered lobbying group at the Scottish Parliament. And, it also receives substantial financial support from the Scottish Government. For example, back in 2018, funding ran to £300,000 per year

Rennie was welcomed warmly to the Parliament at Holyrood in 2005 when this motion was debated:

That the Parliament congratulates the youth volunteer group at LGBT Youth Scotland for winning one of the eight 2004 community safety Philip Lawrence Awards for their contribution to the community grid and to improving the lives of others; notes that LGBT Youth Scotland was the only Scottish organisation to reach the finals of the community safety awards section; recognises the significant work done by LGBT Youth Scotland in tackling homophobia and bullying; believes that this work continues to make a crucial difference to the lives of young people in Scotland, and commends this work to all who are working to challenge prejudice in Scotland.

Susan Deacon, a labour MSP who later served as head of the Scottish Police Authority welcomed Rennie personally as follows:

I am sure that colleagues will want to join me in welcoming to the public gallery a number of visitors from LGBT Youth Scotland, including Jamie Rennie, the chief executive, and Martin Henry, the convener of its board.

Martin Henry went on to head the investigation into Sexual abuse of boys in football for the Scottish Football Association.

When Rennie was convicted, the organisation that he had led issued the following statement

LGBT Youth Scotland abhors any abuse of children and young people's rights. It is with a particular sense of betrayal of our organisational purpose and values that we learned of the crimes committed by James Rennie, and we are utterly appalled by his abuse and exploitation of children.

The Continuing Abuse

In December 2022, Reduxx, an online feminist magazine, published the testimony of two men who alleged that they suffered grooming and sexual exploitation when, as minors, they accessed the “services” of LGBT Youth Scotland. These two men, Sam Cowie and Daniel Nechtan, are demanding an investigation into the organisation.

The Times reported:

An employee at gay rights charity has been suspended after historical allegations of safeguarding issues.

LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS) opened an internal investigation last week after accusations against staff members. Sam Cowie, now 28, from Glasgow, said he had been raped and sexually assaulted by strangers as a result of safeguarding problems at LGBTYS more than a decade ago.

He said on Thursday that when he was 15 he was given cigarettes and alcohol by LGBTYS employees. He alleged that he had been taken to bars where he was assaulted and raped by men.

Mr Cowie described his experiences with LGBT Youth Scotland as follows:

Looking back, I think I was preyed upon because I was vulnerable and they knew I’d been in care.

I was looking for a community to be part of and they exploited that. At the time it felt exciting. It started with them giving me special things, then walking me home, which led to being taken for drinks.

I was then given a fake ID - a passport in [the worker's] name - and taken to nightclubs where older men being with younger boys was just sort of normal.

As a direct result of that, and the people they introduced me to, I was drugged and raped. I was already vulnerable but they made things 10 times worse.”

LBGT Youth Scotland responded by referring itself to Police Scotland in December 2022. When asked about the outcome of this investigation, a Police Scotland spokesperson said :

Following allegations of historical sexual abuse within LGBT Youth Scotland, enquiries were carried out and no criminality was established.

Conflicting Interests

In March 2022, Mr Cowie wrote to social justice secretary Shona Robison requesting a full investigation into the activities of LGBT Youth Scotland. Ms. Robison did not reply to him. What she did do, was forward his appeal, which contained personal information and details of the abuse he suffered, to a civil-service team called The LGBTQI+ Equality Team. They work in partnership with LGBT Youth Scotland.

This is standard practice in the SNP administration and a pattern I have often observed. Suppose one writes to a senior politician in Scotland seeking help with some form of state agency misconduct, corruption, or abuse. In that case, the politician will simply forward the correspondence to the least suitable person for an answer. If complaining about the conduct of a senior police officer, for example, the letter will be sent onwards to that officer for a response. It has the feel of gaslighting. The pretense is: that all people in public service are trustworthy. The idea of actually doing something about the abuse never seems to come up. The politician ensures that the trail of correspondence does not end on her desk. The fact that the interests of the victims are actively harmed by these actions does not seem to be a factor.

The Scottish Daily Express reported that Mr Cowie received one brief reply which informed him that the LGBTQI+ Equality Team did not consider Mr. Rennie's conviction to be "relevant" to their work in promoting the inclusion of LGBT young people in Scotland.

A Network of LGBT Organisations

What then is the LGBTQI+ Equality Team? In response to an FOISA request, The Scottish Government stated that:

The LGBTQI+ Equality team is based in the Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights. It works alongside a range of teams to protect and advance equality for all. The team is responsible for progressing LGBTQI+ equality, with a current focus on delivering commitments to end conversion practices and improving equality for trans and non-binary people.

Note, that this agenda is not about counteracting bullying and abuse of gay men and lesbian women (the reasons given when there is the need to defend the initiative from criticism). Rather it is all about the trans agenda and matters at the forefront of Queer Theory. More on that strand later.

Presently, the LGBTQI+ Equality Team reports to:

• Alison Byrne, Director of Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights

• Louise Macdonald, Director-General Communities

• Kaukab Stewart, Minister for Equalities

• Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice

The team comprises five civil servants, at present their identities are unknown. They work in close collaboration with a range of what is termed third sector organisations, these being organisations set up as charities and nominally independent, but in reality reliant on government funding. Third section organisations give the state many things. It gives them plausible deniability and separation when things go wrong, the appearance of grassroots support (termed astroturfing — as in fake grassroots), and enhanced financial power and control, as wayward third sector organisations can have their funding cut much more easily than a civil servant can be fired.

In the queer zone, in addition to LGBT Youth Scotland, the partners are:

The Equality Network; a registered charity founded in 1997 working at national, community, individual and cultural levels for the LGBT agenda. At national level “by being an authoritative provider of information, advice and consultancy on LGBTI equality and rights in legislation, policy and strategy”. At a cultural level they “promote social values and attitudes which are supportive of LGBTI rights, equality and inclusion”. They also campaign for abortion. Annual turnover approximately £600,000.

LGBT Health and Wellbeing; like LGBT Youth Scotland, a registered lobbying organisation. The chairman of the board is Yorath Turner (he/him) Head of Digital Capability and Talent in Scottish Government. They are funded by Big Lottery Community Fund, the Scottish Government, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership, and the Henry Smith Foundation. Their primary focus is on the physical, social, and mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ adults (defined as 16+). Annual turnover approximately £950,000.

LEAP Sports Scotland; The acronym stands for Leadership, Equality and Active Participation in sports for LGBTI people in Scotland. Annual turnover around £630,000.

Scottish Trans; is a lobby group for gender transition and gender reassignment. It is funded by the Scottish Government. They engage in Policy development work for the government and provide information and advice to Scottish and UK Government officials, MSPs, MPs, and other national policy influencers, public bodies, service providers, and employers about trans people’s equality and human rights. They also provide a range of publications including guides to gender reassignment surgery. They are part of the Equality Network.

Stonewall Scotland; Part of the LGBTQ+ lobby and activist organisation. Registered lobbying organisation at Holyrood. National turnover around £1.3 million, including £100,000 from the Scottish Government.

Adding in the £1.6 Million turnover in LGBT Youth Scotland, and the staffing costs for the LGBTQI+ Equality Team, this all equates to an annual resources of around £4.1 million. Broadly that is sufficient to employ around fifty full-time lobbyists, activists, policy wonks, and similar professionals, all experts in transforming society. And almost all of this is paid for from taxation revenue.

What does a £4 million lobbying budget buy?

These resources buy access to children for a start. A recent report by For Women Scotland entitled “What’s Happening in Your Child’s Classroom” found that:

• At least 95% of Scottish schools operate a policy of gender self-identification.

• Only 4% of parents in Scotland can expect to be informed if their child expresses distress about gender at school.

• In Scotland, 60% of schools will allow a child access to toilets designated for use by the opposite sex.

• Gender ideology is deeply embedded in schools.

For Women Scotland note that:

The transgender guidance provided by the Scottish Government clearly has a significant influence on decisions made by schools which, by and large, unquestioningly follow its advice, even when it is out of date, unlawful and supports an unscientific, contested belief system that has more in common with religious studies than it does with biology lessons.

When pressed, the advocates for this confusion retreat to their defensible stronghold and claim that an end to bullying suffered by gay and lesbian teenagers is the focus of their work. But what has been made clear by the concentration on non-binary identities, trans-genderism, and the focus on opposing so-called conversion practices is that a wider agenda is at work This relates to a postmodern ideology termed queer theory.

What is Queer Theory?

The Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice defines queer as follows:

Queer theory functions to complicate existing academic frameworks, and conceptions of social relations, by deconstructing the dominant, heteronormative structures undergirding extant scholarship (Marinucci, 2010). One theoretical strategy relies on an insistence on the social construction of gender and sexuality (see Butler, 1990). Theories of social construction claim that human identities are not inherent or essential (that is, having an essence), but rather emerge out of social relations and discourse. In Butler’s (1990) work, she understands gender as produced through repetitive practices of personal and social practices. In other words, one’s gender does not exist a priori discourse, but instead is constructed by characteristics and experiences. At the base of social constructionist theories is the assumption that, since identities are constructed, they can always be constructed otherwise.

So, Queer Theory holds that gender is a social construct, it is separate from sex and can be reconstructed at will (unless that is to align it with the normal male and female roles, which would be termed “conversion therapy, a practice that the Scottish Government is seeking to criminalise). To put it simply, Queer Theory says your sex is irrelevant, you can be whatever you choose or wish to be. Anyone who does not accept your wishes is an oppressor. This is being not so much taught, so much as lived in Scottish schools, put into practice, made customary. In Marxist theory (and Queer Theory is a branch of Marxist Theory) this is termed “praxis”.

Queer theory seeks to antagonise the normal, the conventional relentlessly, not merely to expand the boundaries of normal to include such things as homosexual relationships. Rather it seeks to destroy the concept that normal as anything other than constraining and oppressive. Hence it finds itself opposed to many lesbians, whom it designates “TERFS”, and gay men who it finds insufficiently queer and simply part of a new normal.

The photograph below shows the current Minister for Equalities, Kaukab Stewart, and SNP MP Kirsten Oswald photographed in front of a sign reading “decapitate TERFS” at a pro-trans rally in Buchanan Street in Glasgow in 2023. Well… you get the idea. This is an extreme ideology not averse to violence.

Campaigner James Lindsay summarised Queer Theory as follows:

Queer Theory elevates only one identity as authentic: the queer identity, which ceases to be queer the moment it is accepted or even able to be categorized.

Queer theory was built on the ideas of the postmodernists Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Its modern leaders are Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, and Eve Sedgwick. The following tweet from Dr Rebecca Don Kennedy, Chief Executive of The Equality Network, shows her admiration for the Queer Theorist par excellence, Judith Butler:

What is Going On?

In his farewell speech, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…by the military-industrial complex. Now, in Scotland, we have a variant of the same evil — the queer-industrial complex. As in 60s America, the queer-industrial complex is an alliance of elements within the state and organisations outside the state who rely on the government for funding. As in 1960s America, these forces seek to use their unwarranted influence to change our society to conform to their wishes and beliefs, and in their financial interest. And as in 1960s America, the battleground is the next generation.

Some of this we can see. Queer theory has been supported both from within the Scottish Government civil service and via state-funded, third-sector, lobby and activist groups. It has achieved near-universal embedment in our schools and has access to our young people. They are not being so much taught queer theory as they are having queer theory practiced upon them. The aim is to change society. The means is to paint the normal as oppressive and to attack it relentlessly.

When challenged, this mountain lion turns into a pussy-cat and claims prevention of bullying of teenagers with same-sex attraction is all that it is about. Activists point to rates of mental illness and suicidal ideation amongst teenagers struggling with their sexuality and claim that to oppose their work is heartless, cruel, and wicked. This is to silence opposition. Other tricks include painting opponents as TERFS, homophobes, transphobes, Christian extremists, or bigots. So far these tactics have been hugely successful and organised resistance to their march through our educational institutions has been sporadic and ineffective.

Key to all of their success is for the other side of the argument to be silenced, shamed, or criminalised. Hence the Hate Crime Law was enacted on 1st April this year and a proposed ban on Conversion Therapy is very much the government's objective. The Hate Crime Act, for all its shambolic roll-out, is getting the message across - mind what you say, mind what you think. Here is an English Comedian, Andrew Lawrence, showing that he understands what the new law means:

Silencing opposition is essential for queer theorists, because their ideas cannot stand up to scrutiny, and cannot survive where there is openness and accountability. When examined, the underlying darkness and nihilism become clear and people choose better ways. Fortunately for the queer activists, in the Scottish Government they have found their greatest ally, for openness and accountability are anathema to Scotgov

Furthermore, no example of abuse by anyone or any group within the Queer-Industrial complex will be allowed to tarnish these organisations in the eyes of the government. James Rannie, CEO of the largest of the third-sector organisations and leader of Scotland’s worst-ever paedophile ring has demonstrated that beyond doubt. Even when Sam Cowie bravely raised the abuse he had suffered as a reason for the state to investigate the organisation Rennie headed, his plea was treated with contempt. So we cannot look to the institutions that should protect us and our children to uncover some dark secret and for that to be an end to the matter. Rather we will have to fight for openness and accountability to be restored.

Some of this we cannot see. How much do our politicians understand about the evil religion (for that’s what it is) that they are installing into our schools, young people, and wider society? Have they been beguiled by the activists? Or, have they been leading these developments, fully aware of the implications of their actions? Have they assembled their supporting cast of charitable sector organisations to provide intellectual covering fire, so that we all keep our heads down?

Whatever the answers to those questions may be, one thing is clear. It is time to hold the entire Queer-Industrial complex to account. It is time to examine what they do, who they harm, and what they believe. It is time to force the openness and accountability they fear upon them at every turn, in every school, on every day.