Not sure there's a more direct way for the SNP leadership to pin their colours to the mast than suggesting changes to the hate crime bill that openly suggest removing transphobia as a hate crime.

Imagine removing criticism of "homosexual identity" from hate crime legislation.

There's no difference here. Humza Yousaf is providing an escape hatch for transphobes to use to escape legislation that he is providing for no other hate group.

This is SNP leadership flagrantly pandering to transphobia in their ranks, declaring "it's alright to be a transphobe"

"Behaviour or material is not taken to be threatening or abusive solely on the basis that it includes criticism of matters relating to...

- religious faith
- racial identity
- sexuality
- linguistic identity"

Can you imagine ruling these out of hate crime legislation?

It gets even worse from the Scottish Tories, who have proposed an amendment that would explicitly rule out misgendering people and conversion therapy against trans people as hate crimes: https://twitter.com/ECTScotland/status/1354396926104526851