'I'm quite scared' Dugdale on safety, gay rights and the future of Stonewall

Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of Scottish Labour, has said she is now "quite scared" as a lesbian in Britain and has started to feel nervous holding her wife's hand in public.

- Helen Pidd

Speaking to the Guardian in Edinburgh on the announcement of her appointment as the chair of the charity Stonewall, Dugdale said it was "completely possible" that gay rights in the UK could be eroded with the rise of rightwing populism.

Equal marriage could not be taken for granted, she cautioned.

"I don't think it is an implausible argument now in the way that it maybe was five years ago. Look at Italy, for example, where you see a rollback of rights for LGBT people.

It has happened pretty quickly, it's centred around concepts of family life and the country is going backwards. It's not beyond the realm that that could happen here." Dugdale, who led Scottish Labour from 2015-17, will take up the unpaid position at the LGBTQ+ charity in six months. She takes charge after a turbulent period in which Stonewall lost more than half of its income and had to make dozens of staff redundant, in large part because of its uncompromising position on transgender rights.

Critics accused it of pursuing a "militant trans agenda" and a "no debate" approach to trans women.

They charged Stonewall with pursuing an absolutist position on trans inclusion, in which trans women should be allowed into all single-sex spaces - from prisons to hospital wards, professional sport and women's refuges - regardless of concerns about safety and fairness.

Dugdale's appointment would appear to mark a pivot for the organisation. As well as acknowledging the charity's missteps, she also had warm words on JK Rowling, the author who has become a lightning rod for the ire of the trans community.