GREEN MSP Q Manivannan has come under heavy fire over comments about the “demonisation of rape”, which exists on a “spectrum”.
Reform UK and the Scottish Tories have said that Manivannan – a non-binary MSP who uses they/them pronouns – should lose their party whip, while Scottish Labour MP Tracy Gilbert called for the Greens to “fully retract and apologise” for the remarks.
Here are the remarks from Green MSP Q Manivannan in full.
When did Q Manivannan make the comments?
The comments from Green MSP Q Manivannan came as they appeared on a podcast called The Subjective Space in February 2025.
Host Sindhu Rajasekaran had raised the issue of rehabilitation of convicted criminals.
She said: “I think of myself as a very empathetic and forgiving person in general, and I can do that to a large extent. But I think certain things, like for me, for people who commit rape, I have no empathy.
“I cannot in my head find a way to forgive that act, because for me it's so violat[ing].”
Rajasekaran added: “I guess my question to you is, what is care? How can we, at least for the future, hope that we can create a world where everyone's a compassionate being?”
What did Q Manivannan say about rape and a ‘spectrum’?
In response, Manivannan said they “feel similar anger” about rape, going on to say that “the idea of whether the care is sufficient, I think, largely boils down to who is performing care, who is finally the individual or set of individuals who are expected to do the labour of care”.
Ultimately, Manivannan said, the question “leads to an imagination of what a just society would be”.
The Green MSP said: “It is parallel to questions of abolitionism, of what it means to think of rehabilitating rapists, for instance, as you said, into society.
“I think our distaste towards rape is towards rape. It's towards the idea of and the act of rape, not towards the myth of this ‘monster rapist’ as now we’re born to be thinking of it that way.
“Because there definitely is a demonisation of rape, in the sense of, it is a spectrum. As much as I don't seek to lighten …”
Rajasekaran cut in to say that rape is “not always that sort of scary act” but “a range of things that is also rape”.
Manivannan then went on: “It is, yeah. It is a spectrum, none of which is any less or worse, but it is a spectrum of things that constitute that one homogenised word rape.
“There's also different modes of, well, not just consent, but also context and conditions under which rape is, well, rape.
“And I think in that circumstance, the idea that this rapist is the big burly man is not necessarily unfounded because that's the individual I'm most scared of, on a day-to-day basis, but it's also an entity that is misconstrued, simply because I think any individual is capable of rape, including yourself and me, and I think that scary thought is the one that is the hardest to contend with.
“Beginning with contending with those harder facts and beginning to ask, what are those conditions that could lead individuals like ourselves, for instance, to be in that position, and commit such an act is the kind of question that would lead one to be sufficient carers towards even perpetrators of crimes like rape.”
What have Q Manivannan and the Greens said?
In response to the controversy sparked by the comments over the weekend, Manivannan said that they had been “clearly misrepresented and taken out of context from a much longer interview”.
“As a survivor of sexual violence, who has spoken openly about my recovery, I am clear that we need to focus on reducing the likelihood of perpetrators of rape reoffending,” the MSP added.
“The point I made about demonisation was that not all rapists fit a stereotype, and that all kinds of men can and do commit it.”
On Monday, a Scottish Green spokesperson said the party “unequivocally condemn rape, harassment and sexual violence”.
“When sexual crimes against women and girls too often go unpunished, and where many victims feel scared to report for fear of not being believed, the language we use and the way we represent the views of others matters.
“As Q’s previous statement has made clear, the clip being circulated this weekend was deliberately taken out of context from a longer conversation in order to misrepresent them.
“In the full interview Q argued strongly that too many men get away with this crime because of the assumption that rapists all match a narrow stereotype.
“We will only tackle this epidemic of sexual violence if that dangerous stereotype is consigned to history.”
