I have a friend called Michael.

He’s a great buddy and definitely one of my BFFs. Friendly, down-to-earth and a great laugh to be around, he was one of the few people that helped me endure the bullshit that occurred at the secondary school I went to. He now lives in Edinburgh in an amazing little flat (which I’m stupidly envious of) and I go through whenever I can, where we catch a coffee, catch up with one anothers’ lives and have a good bitch about everything that irks us. A day spent in his company is always a hilarious and therapeutic one and I’m glad to have him as a buddy.

He’s also gay.

That last sentence means jack shit to me: everybody’s different and your sexuality is an integral part of your personality, so you should be allowed to be attracted to whichever gender of person you like. I actually welcome the fact that he’s gay: it makes him stand out as an individual even more and his camp nature only serves to make him a wittier and more endearing person. I like girls and he likes guys: that’s fine and that’s the end of it, as far as I’m concerned.

Not so, according to the Scottish Christian Party and the birdbrained views they give across in their party election broadcast. Here it is in all its terrible glory.

Fantastic, isn’t it? I know that election broadcasts are traditionally terrible, but I’ve never seen one this bad. Did they honestly look at the final product and decide it was worthy of broadcasting on national television? What’s with the choppy footage of a photocopier printing leaflets? Why can’t you hear a word of what anybody’s saying? And what is that music about? It’s like something the Westboro Baptist Church would churn out.

I digress. In case you can’t penetrate the horrific production values and actually make out what anybody’s saying, what it basically boils down to is ‘we Christians are being persecuted for not liking homosexuals’. They say that the nation must turn into a tolerant society so that they can freely speak about their condemnation of gay people without the threat of persecution or punishment.

What a load of horseshit. How the hell would we be making a more tolerant Scotland by electing a party that would in turn decry and denounce an entire group of people purely for the way they think and feel? Their manifesto says that they ‘will expose the threat to freedom of speech’. How, by channelling the ‘persecution’ they receive onto gay people instead? They don’t seem to realise just how hypocritical they’re being when they say that “we don’t live in a tolerant society” while snivelling about their disapproval of homosexuals. I bet they’d be up in arms if similar broadcasts from other religious parties started doing the rounds.

When this popped up on my television, I was shocked, appalled and frankly offended: how can people harbour such intolerant views of others, looking down on them and lecturing them on how the way they choose to live their lives is sinful? Since when does being gay ‘infringe upon the rights of others’? If you happen to be gay, watch out: you’re apparently just as bad as criminals and murderers.

The Scottish Christian party is a hypocritical, intolerant, insulting and disrespectful organisation that doesn’t deserve any of the votes it may get. Their election broadcast is not so much a campaign promo as another opportunity to preach their archaic and idiotic views and ram them down our throats. They chose to follow the ways of Christianity and base their lives on such a decision: why can’t others do the same for any aspect of their lives? Why should we have to put up with being exposed to this shit? The Episcopal Church welcomes gay people into their community, so why are these people so against it? As the old biddy in the video says, Christianty is not a disease: what is are the abrasive and toxic views the people in this party are intent on infecting others with. What they’re doing is spreading hate disguised as political views. These people are just as bad as other hateful parties such as the BNP.

I wonder what Michael, one of the most personable, friendly and conscientious people I know, would think of such views. I’d much rather spend time with him and risk going to hell than spend the rest of eternity in heaven with these bigoted, ignorant, intolerant fools.

I know who definitely won’t be getting my vote this Thursday.