Stonewall awards church leader 'bigot of the year'

The cardinal, who has strongly opposed Scottish government plans to extend marriage to same-sex couples, won the award after describing gay marriage as a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right."

Stonewall Scotland director Colin Macfarlane said: "It's fitting that Stonewall's 10,000 supporters voted decisively to name Cardinal O'Brien as 'Bigot of the Year.'

"The very fact is the people that were nominated for bigot of the year have this year called gay people nazis, they've compared them with bestialitists and to paedophiles and one of the nominees suggested that gay people should be put in front of a firing squad and shot dead.

"I think what we are doing is highlighting the fact that very cruel, very nasty, very pernicious language is being used by some people and in particular by the Cardinal who won. I think we're right to highlight that, I think we're right to shine a light on that kind of discrimination, hence why bigot of the year was one of our award categories."