A controversial gay and transgender rights group for teenagers is to receive a boost in taxpayer funding despite once being led by a paedophile.LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS) has been awarded nearly £500,000 for 2025/26 from the SNP Government - which continues to back the scandal-hit charity.Total funding from a variety of sources including government and the NHS was around £1.9million last year despite the organisation’s past links with one of the country’s worst paedophiles – who was previously its chief executive.The Mail revealed last year that the BBC charity Children in Need had axed funding for LGBTYS amid a row over a ‘coming-out guide’ co-authored by another convicted paedophile.Last night Scottish Tory equalities spokesman Tess White said: ‘Taxpayers will be appalled that the SNP have handed another £500,000 to this discredited organisation while families are forced to tighten their belts.‘It’s just common sense that SNP ministers should pull the plug on this funding, unless and until LGBTYS gets its act together - as charities like BBC Children in Need have done.’The SNP Government said LGBTYS will receive funding of £488,915 for 2025/26 - up from £441,720 for 2024/25 - including £290,871 through the Equality and Human Rights Fund. Andrew Easton, who co-wrote a schools guide for LGBT Youth Scotland, was convicted last year of sharing indecent images of children Police Scotland has handed thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money to LGBT Youth Scotland for training courses and badges used to show solidarity with the gay and trans community Critics have said LGBTYS is ‘mired in scandal’ and that the SNP Government should suspend public funding for it ‘until it gets its act together’The charity’s accounts show overall funding was £1.89million in 2025, up from £1.87million in 2024, including cash from the government, councils, the NHS, and ‘trusts and foundations’.Earlier this year, it emerged Scotland’s cash-strapped police force had handed thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to LGBTYS.It was given more than £3,500 for training courses – and for 500 ‘purple button badges’ to show solidarity with the gay and trans community.The badges mark Purple Friday, an ‘annual fundraising day where people all over Scotland show their support for LGBTQ+ young people and fundraise for our [LGBTYS’s] vital services’.James Rennie, the former chief executive of LGBTYS, is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting a three-month-old after being convicted in 2009 along with seven others on sex abuse charges.He was an SNP Government adviser on child sex issues and had used computers at the LGBTYS offices in Leith to pursue his sordid double life.Andrew Easton, who co-wrote a schools guide for the youth charity, was convicted last year of sharing indecent images of children.He was never an employee or volunteer with LGBTYS but in 2009 he was a young person who attended its services. It was then that he helped to write the guide.Last year, Rosie Millard quit as chairman of Children in Need after protesting about grants given to the charity.The Scottish Tories have said LGBTYS is ‘mired in scandal’ and that the SNP Government should suspend public funding from the organisation ‘until it gets its act together’.Schools which signed up to a scheme run by the charity, for a fee normally of at least £850, were ranked on how well they catered for LGBT pupils and received guides on how best to achieve this.Secondary pupils have been encouraged to sign LGBT rainbow flags, with children asked to ‘celebrate the rainbow’ through the way they dress, and by decorating their schools - described by the Campaign for Real Education as ‘brainwashing’.In its annual report, LGBTYS condemned the ‘vitriolic toxicity of the overblown debate in relation to young trans people’s lives’ which it said ‘continues to escalate’.Commenting on government funding, an LGBTYS spokesman said: ‘We will not comment on the specifics of financial support, but what matters is clear: our vital work transforming the lives of young people is recognised and backed by the Scottish Government.‘Their support underlines the importance and impact of what we do.’The charity said ‘references to Rennie and Easton’ are ‘repeatedly raised… as part of a coordinated attempt to discredit the charity’s reputation’.The spokesman said: ‘We want to state unequivocally that Andrew Easton has never worked for, volunteered with, or had any role in LGBT Youth Scotland.’A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are committed to supporting LGBTQI+ young people, including through funding LGBT Youth Scotland.‘This is particularly important at a time when we are seeing a rise in attacks against the LGBTQI+ community.’Dr Stuart Waiton, chairman of the Scottish Union for Education (SUE) and a sociologist at Abertay University in Dundee, said LGBTYS was spreading a ‘highly dangerous and ideologically driven fantasy that has unfortunately been adopted by “progressive”-minded elites and institutions’.He said: ‘Future generations will look back and ask themselves: “How on earth did we allow these ideologues into our schools”?’But he said they should ‘look no further than desperately out of touch leaders, our virtue-signalling political class, and the educational establishment’.