You know there is something deeply wrong with society when you can read a headline like this:

Kate Forbes, until 5 minutes ago, was the frontrunner to succeed Nicola Sturgeon for the position of First Minister of Scotland. Sturgeon, as you probably know, has been one of the most vociferous supporters of transing everybody, and the backlash finally caught up to her.

Sturgeon resigned in the wake of several controversies regarding her radical push for gender ideology-inspired laws, and the final straw was the transfer of a rapist who claimed to be transgender to a women’s prison. It seems that a lot of people thought that was a bad idea, despite Sturgeon’s idiosyncratic support for self-recognized gender selection for sexual predators.

Given how Sturgeon painted the entire Scottish National Party into a ridiculous corner supporting the most radical tenets of gender ideology, it was no surprise that the frontrunner for her replacement would be a bit to the right of her on such issues. Not a backlash candidate, but somebody seen as less committed to the cause, shall we say?

Perhaps that would make sense, but the SNP will only go so far: no practicing Christians allowed, apparently.

A candidate once thought to be the frontrunner to become Scotland’s next First Minister has insisted that she is staying in the race “at the moment” after she came under intense fire for her Christian beliefs.

Kate Forbes, the SNP Finance Secretary, was favourite to succeed Nicola Sturgeon when she entered the leadership race on Monday.

However, on Tuesday, her support evaporated dramatically after she gave a series of unguarded comments about her views on social issues.

She claimed that her faith meant she was personally opposed to gay marriage, having children outside of wedlock and abortion, although she insisted she had no interest in imposing her views on others.

However, a series of key SNP politicians, including three ministers, pulled support for her campaign on Tuesday. That leaves the Sturgeon continuity candidate Humza Yousaf as the runaway favourite.

SNP insiders said it is increasingly likely that Ms Forbes will quit the race, although she insisted she has no intention of doing so.

We have now entered an era where it is controversial but not deadly to insist that children should be castrated and mutilated based upon a likely temporary confusion about their gender identity, but admitting that you are a traditional Christian who is tolerant of people with different views is utterly beyond the pale.

Ms. Forbes was not campaigning to change the laws, or even directly address them in any way. She simply didn’t agree with them based on her faith. This, it seems, is now enough to disqualify a person for higher office, notwithstanding her apparent competence. She was the frontrunner, after all, so there was agreement on that.

This is the opposite of liberalism, and in effect goes back to the days of the religious wars that wracked Scotland and England centuries ago.

Ms Forbes, a member of the conservative Free Church of Scotland, said on Tuesday that the backlash to her candidacy had raised a “fascinating question” for Scottish politics around the meaning of liberalism.

She told STV: “Have we become so illiberal that we cannot have these discussions or some people are beyond the pale?

“Because if some people are beyond the pale, then those are dark and dangerous days for Scotland.”

The BBC writes about the controversy, concluding that Forbes just should have shut her mouth about her religious beliefs. And they have a point, I suppose, since that likely would have smoothed the way to the highest political office in Scotland.

But Forbes has a point too, and a better one. Great Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is Hindu, and nobody seems to be having a hissy fit about that. I suspect that if anybody brought it up as a serious negative they would be bum-rushed out of politics.

But a Christian? That, apparently, is a bit too far for the Right Set™ these days.

This all brings up an important point: woke is everywhere, and we at Hot Air have been the target of regular attacks. One of the biggest ad companies in the world was secretly blocking ad placements at the site, and as you know Big Tech in general has put a target on conservatives’ backs.

That’s one reason why we ask our readers to join the VIP program. It helps us keep up the fight against the whiny woke brigade and bring you the content that Americans need to hear. VIP members get special access to podcasts, and regular VIP columns from Ed, Jazz, and me. We also throw in essays from other authors such as Generalisso Duane and Tom Jackson.

Please consider helping our network keep up the fight by signing up for either our VIP or VIP Gold membership plans. And if you use the promo code SAVEAMERICA this week you’ll get 40% off. I’d like to extend my gratitude to any of you who do and all of our readers who already have. Our members keep us going strong.