Shirley-Anne Somerville has called for more respect within the transgender rights debate.

Internal SNP tensions over trans rights were displayed in leaked private messages between MSPs.

Growing tensions over how to define someone's gender in law are at the centre of the debate

Ruth Maguire responded to praise of Nicola Sturgeon's tweet by posting "FFS".

Ash Denham and Gillian Martin then appeared to suggest they thought the First Minister was "out of step" with her party group.

Some people who have been raising concerns about proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 - which currently states you have to have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to legally change your gender - say they're being harassed and unfairly accused of being transphobic.

Trans rights campaigners want a streamlined process that will allow individuals to self identify without medical paperwork.

In a blog on the Scottish Government website, the Equalities Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville called for the increasingly polarised debate to become more respectful.

She said, "Just as the First Minister has herself said in the past, I personally don't feel conflict between my support for trans rights and my support for women's rights.

But I know that some do feel that conflict - and that the issues they are raising are not motivated by transphobia but by a concern, sincerely felt, that space hard won by women down the generations will be compromised."

Speaking on Scotland Tonight, the National columnist Shona Crevan said, " I don't think we should read too much into what anyone's position is based on those messages."

Political commentator Angela Haggerty said there was a "problem within the SNP" and called the leaked messages an "internal rebellion".