An Angus councillor has had his wrists slapped by the standards watchdog after signing a petition which referred to a church minister as a “homophobic reverend”.
The panel found that Independent Carnoustie councillor Brian Boyd had “behaved in a grossly irresponsible way” and censured him, which records the commission’s “severe and public disapproval of the respondent.”
The online petition, which urged Angus Council to dump the Rev Mike Goss from his chaplaincy role at Carnoustie High School amid allegations of bigotry, also included an allegation that the minister “had kicked his transgender daughter out, she was thirteen” – a statement that was publicly refuted by the minister’s daughter.
Mr Goss, minister of Barry, which is linked with Carnoustie, described the petition as a “tissue of lies” and said the allegations were “potentially actionable” and lodged a complaint with the Standards Commission for Scotland.
Mr Goss had previously opened a formal protest over the Church of Scotland’s move to back same-sex marriages among ministers in 2016, and gave an interview to BBC Scotland in 2017 in which he stated “same-sex relationships are not what God has planned for us as human beings”.
In an emotional defence during Wednesday’s meeting in Forfar, Mr Boyd said: “This was not my petition.
“It was that of a frustrated pupil of Carnoustie High and I had no involvement whatsoever in its content.”
Mr Boyd stated that he had received a link to the petition to his personal phone while on holiday, and had not scrolled through the whole text before signing it, which he had done in a personal capacity.
However, the security settings of the site meant that the petition then appeared on Councillor Boyd’s personal Facebook page, which was publicly accessible, and described Mr Boyd as an Angus councillor.
After the hearing, Mr Boyd said: “Naturally I’m disappointed in the finding.
“I feel that the technology of security settings on social media has worked to my disadvantage.
“This has been a regrettable episode that has put a lot of strain both on myself and my family life for the past ten months.”
Rev Goss said: “I believe that the process has reached a conclusion and that I think my position has been justified.
“I came into this process to try and get Mr Boyd to think about what he was doing and I hope this brings the matter to an end.”
