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A Green MSP has said they are “horrified” as they apologised for their comments about the “demonisation of rape”.
Q Manivannan has issued an apology after an open letter from the Scottish Rape Crisis Alliance, which represents four rape crisis centres in Scotland, said there was “no hierarchy of rape” and warned the MSP not to “minimise” sexual violence.
Manivannan said: “I am horrified that my comments were selectively edited in order to mislead people and misrepresent me, but I also accept that my language was abstract in the first place and for that I take full responsibility and am sorry.
“During the interview, I categorically stated that rape in every context is equally serious and harmful.
“This section of the interview was maliciously left out of clips — with the rest being misrepresented and widely shared out of context, despite my repeated clarifications.
“I also made the point that rapists do not fit a single stereotype and that many men are relatives or known to their victims.
“I recognise that the words in the clip shared, without the full context of the conversation, have caused considerable upset.
“For that I apologise. I will always stand with, and for, victims and survivors.”
The controversial comments from Manivannan, made during The Subjective Space podcast last year, sparked fury after they re-emerged online at the weekend.
During the nearly hour-long exchange, Manivannan, a non-binary MSP who uses they/them pronouns, said there was a “demonisation of rape”.
“It is a spectrum,” they added, “none of which is any worse or less or more worse, but it is a spectrum of things that constitute that one homogenised word, rape.”
Manivannan also said there were “different modes” of consent and rape.
The MSP went on to say that the idea of a rapist being a “big, big, burly man” was “not necessarily unfounded” but said it was “misconstrued” because “any individual is capable” of rape.