Two transgender MSPs elected to Holyrood in first for Scottish parliament

Scotland has elected its first two transgender MSPs to the Holyrood parliament.

Dr Q Manivannan and Iris Duane both secured regional list seats for the Scottish Green Party.

Addressing a crowd of cheering party supporters after the results were announced in Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre, Dr Manivannan said: “My name is Dr Q Manivannan, I am a transgender Tamil immigrant, my pronouns are they/them.

“I am to some in this country everything that the hateful despise and I am standing here as your MSP now with care.

“They say politics is the art of the possible, a politics of care I would say expands what is possible for everyone left behind, pushed out or never invited in.”

They added: “Every barrier placed before me with the Greens was the reason also that we pushed further.

“This is what diversity looks like in power.”

Dr Manivannan also thanked their family: “You showed me that home is the place you don’t have to explain yourself, and where you can believe in one another. Thank you.”