Name: Isla Rowan Fraser
Age: 28
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexual Orientation: Queer (bi/pansexual; uses “queer” as both identity and political stance)
Political Affiliation: Scottish Green Party
Current Residence: Shared tenement flat in Leith, Edinburgh

Background

Place of Birth & Upbringing:
Born and raised in Glasgow’s West End, Isla grew up in a tidy, book-filled semi-detached home on a leafy street not far from the Botanic Gardens. Her parents were solidly middle-class professionals — her mother a social worker, her father a town planner. They leaned centre-left, voted Lib Dem or Labour “depending on the year,” and instilled values of fairness, community, and public service.

While not radical, her upbringing was thoughtful, comfortable, and supportive. Conversations at dinner ranged from BBC documentaries to the pros and cons of devolution. Isla’s early exposure to urban inequality, climate politics, and public housing debates shaped her early worldview.

Education:
Attended a well-ranked state secondary school with a focus on humanities and the arts. Took part in Model UN, the debating society, and a LGBTQ+ alliance she helped co-found in her fifth year.

Went on to study Sociology and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh, where she became more politicised — especially around climate justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and intersectionality. Volunteered with Extinction Rebellion Youth, then later co-founded a local Queer Mutual Aid collective focused on food insecurity and community care.

Career & Activism

Now works part-time as a Sustainability & Inclusion Officer for a Scottish university and part-time as a freelance writer/editor for climate justice publications. She’s active in Edinburgh’s Green Party circles but more often on the grassroots end — helping run eco-events, community skill-shares, and queer ecology workshops.

She recently started an initiative called “Urban Roots, Radical Shoots”, bringing together climate, housing, and LGBTQ+ advocacy through a city-wide allotment scheme.

Personality

• Politely Relentless:
  Isla is calm, clear, and assertive. She doesn’t shout — she doesn’t need to. Whether talking to local councillors or challenging outdated policy at work, she comes prepared, principled, and usually with a bullet-pointed PDF in hand.
• Warm but Boundary-Driven:
  She’s caring and community-oriented, but not a pushover. She’s unafraid to walk away from spaces that tokenise her — and will tell you exactly why, with grace and precision.
• Idealism Tempered by Experience:
  While she still believes in collective action and systemic change, she’s seen enough performative politics to be a little jaded. “Hope is a discipline,” she says — quoting Mariame Kaba from memory.

Beliefs & Worldview

• Climate Justice is Intersectional:
  To Isla, climate activism must include housing justice, LGBTQ+ liberation, decolonisation, and economic reform. She believes in public ownership, community land trusts, and dismantling extractive systems, not just recycling and rooftop gardens.
• Queer Liberation is Ecological:
  Isla sees queer people as “inherently adaptive and creative,” with vital roles in imagining post-capitalist futures. She promotes “queering ecology” as both a philosophy and a practice — challenging binary, colonial ways of relating to nature and space.
• Urban Green Reformist:
  She's passionate about rewilding cities, turning grey infrastructure into biodiverse commons, and making climate resilience accessible. She supports UBI, green job guarantees, and a complete overhaul of Scotland’s land-use policies.
• Scottish Independence (Progressive Lens):
  She supports independence not out of nationalism, but as a chance to build a radically democratic and sustainable nation. She’s cautious of “flag politics” and calls out transphobia or classism in both Yes and No camps.

Lifestyle & Interests

• City-Based Simplicity:
  Lives in a sunny three-bedroom tenement with two other queer activists. The flat is a mix of urban homestead and political art gallery — plants in every corner, handmade protest banners hanging near the kitchen, and a spice rack that doubles as a shrine to local growers.
• Style & Expression:
  Casual queer femme — thrifted skirts, oversized knits, enamel pins on a waxed canvas backpack. Often has chipped nail polish, safety pins holding something together, and one ear adorned more heavily than the other.
• Tech Use:
  Owns a Fairphone, runs Signal and Mastodon, and avoids Instagram. Uses open-source tools, buys nothing from Amazon, and manages her calendar via a recycled-paper bullet journal.
• Hobbies:
  • Reading speculative eco-fiction and queer theory
  • Volunteering at a local queer youth centre
  • Hosting seasonal solstice dinners for her community
  • DIY herbalism and fermentation (“kombucha brewing is like climate grief therapy”)

Quirks & Traits

• Keeps a “No Thanks, I Have a Mug” sticker on her reusable coffee cup
• Knows the first names of five Green MSPs and one bus driver
• Carries seeds in her coat pocket “just in case”
• Once stopped a flat viewing mid-tour because the letting agent called the mould “charming”
• Refers to air travel as “a planetary tantrum” unless it’s literally for asylum or survival

Relationships & Social Life

• Chosen Family:
  Deeply embedded in Edinburgh’s queer and activist networks. Hosts weekly community dinners, “trauma-informed climate chats,” and helps newcomers navigate housing, jobs, or trans-inclusive GPs.
• Romantic Life:
  Currently in a committed relationship with a nonbinary illustrator and climate justice educator. They’re building a “soft life resistance plan” together — focused on joy, equity, and collective healing.
• Biological Family:
  Still close to her parents — they’re proud, if occasionally confused. They now compost religiously and vote Green “because Isla made a slideshow.”

Would you like a scene showing Isla debating at a council planning meeting, supporting a queer housing cooperative, or leading a climate walk through the city?

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