Kezia

Well, we nearly managed it. It seems Kezia Dugdale "came out" as gay last week, although her sexual orientation doesn't seem to have been any great secret to people who know her. Nobody reacted in last week's newspapers or on the radio or on TV and I for one thought: it has finally happened - we've reached the stage where nobody gives a damn. It's the ideal situation: nobody feels they have the right to poke about in anybody else's private life just because they take on a public role and nobody will be put off public service because they're scared they will get splashed all over the papers.

That was till today. Monday's Herald has a column about Kezia Dugdale and other 'gay' politicians. It is, if anything, even more offensive than the shock two-page spreads we used to get, in which people were said to have 'admitted' to being gay, because it's a long letter of self-congratulation, almost to the very end. Haven't we done well in Scotland? We have given up on prejudice. We're so keen on equality these days. It's just amazing what fair-minded people we are here. Of course, we still have adolescents who think the words 'that is so gay' are a terrible insult but then, teenagers - what else can we expect? - they're so immature but they'll catch up with the rest of us and then we'll all be happy and...

No, wait a minute. We're all keeking round the elephant in the room. The elephant is huge and stinks to high heaven and it affects everyone's daily life here in Scotland.

It's called sectarianism.

I have a theory that in the Central Belt of Scotland, we are so taken up by sectarian hatred we can't spare the time to be racist. That's the real reason we don't have a 'Muslim problem' - despite what some of the press were trying to tell us when poor Asad Shah was murdered. And sectarianism continues to thrive even as the number of people here claiming they have a religion drops year after year.

I'll believe Scotland is a tolerant, equal and fair-minded society the day that Catholic and Presbyterian churches and secular groups like the Humanists unite to 'preach' tolerance, fair-mindedness and equality.