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A Green MSP has said they are \u201chorrified\u201d as they apologised for their comments about the \u201cdemonisation of rape\u201d.<\/p>\n
Q Manivannan has issued an apology after an open letter from the\u00a0Scottish Rape Crisis Alliance, which represents four rape crisis centres in Scotland, said there was \u201cno hierarchy of rape\u201d and warned the MSP not to \u201cminimise\u201d sexual violence.<\/p>\n
Manivannan said: \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the interview, I categorically stated that rape in every context is equally serious and harmful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis section of the interview was maliciously left out of clips \u2014 with the rest being misrepresented and widely shared out of context, despite my repeated clarifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also made the point that rapists do not fit a single stereotype and that many men are relatives or known to their victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognise that the words in the clip shared, without the full context of the conversation, have caused considerable upset.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor that I apologise. I will always stand with, and for, victims and survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversial comments from Manivannan, made during The Subjective Space podcast last year, sparked fury after they re-emerged online at the weekend.<\/p>\n
During the nearly hour-long exchange, Manivannan, a non-binary MSP who uses they\/them pronouns, said there was a \u201cdemonisation of rape\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a spectrum,\u201d they added, \u201cnone of which is any worse or less or more worse, but it is a spectrum of things that constitute that one homogenised word, rape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manivannan also said there were \u201cdifferent modes\u201d of consent and rape.<\/p>\n
The MSP went on to say that the idea of a rapist being a \u201cbig, big, burly man\u201d was \u201cnot necessarily unfounded\u201d but said it was \u201cmisconstrued\u201d because \u201cany individual is capable\u201d of rape.<\/p>\n