The tth about life as a gay Tory MP | The Spectator

Contents:

• GAY TORY MP FIGHTS BACK TEARS OVER 'DAMAGE' HE SUFFERED HIDG HIS SEXUALY THE ARMY
• GLAD TO BE GAY, GLAD TO BE TORY
• GAY TORY MP MIKE FREER LLS ON HIS OWN PARTY TO END ‘TOXIC’ CULTURE WAR: ‘HUMAN RIGHTS REALLY ARE NOT BATABLE’
• GAY TORY
• I’M PROUD TO BE BOTH GAY AND A TORY. AND NO, THAT DON’T MAKE ME A ‘TRAOR’
• GAY TORY MP LEE ROWLEY THKS SOME LGBT+ PEOPLE ARE ‘LOOKG FOR GRIEVANCE’
• THE TTH ABOUT LIFE AS A GAY TORY MP
• INSI THE MDS OF YOUNG GAY TORI
• I’M GAY… AND A TORY

GAY TORY MP FIGHTS BACK TEARS OVER 'DAMAGE' HE SUFFERED HIDG HIS SEXUALY THE ARMY

Crisp Blunt spoke movgly about beg gay the armed forc, as MPs discsed the landmark Etherton Report to the historil treatment of gay people the aryVio LoadgVio UnavailableCrisp Blunt fights back tears as he reunts time army as a gay manA Tory MP fought back tears today as he talked about the “damage” he suffered by hidg his sexualy while servg the Army.

Former mister Crisp Blunt, 63, repeatedly psed as he spoke a parliamentary bate about a report to the treatment of gay people the armed forc.

GLAD TO BE GAY, GLAD TO BE TORY

Rishi Sunak formally apologised earlier to thoands of troops kicked out of the armed forc for beg gay. While homosexualy was crimalised 1967, anyone who was gay the UK ary before 2000 faced beg booted out or had to hi their secret. The former mister was speakg as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace ma a statement about the treatment of gay people the armed forc.

The MP for Reigate, Surrey, me out as gay 2010 as he spl om his wife. When Ken Livgstone ma his famo ment about the Tory party beg "riddled" wh gay men back Febary, he igned a row over his choice of words.

GAY TORY MP MIKE FREER LLS ON HIS OWN PARTY TO END ‘TOXIC’ CULTURE WAR: ‘HUMAN RIGHTS REALLY ARE NOT BATABLE’

They uldn't really, as is a fact: the Conservative party do have a large number of gay members and Black, the first openly gay Tory the Hoe of Lords, put most eloquently. He's quoted Tory Pri And Prejudice, a recent history of the Conservativ and homosexualy: "It was one of those strange phenomena that when the Conservative party appeared natnally to be at is most homophobic, at the very heart of the anisatn were all the fluential gay men.

"This phenomenon is seen as one of the endurg mysteri of mory polics: why do so many gay men support a party they may thk don't (or once didn't) support them? (Another mystery, cintally, is why a Liberal Democrat party keenly supportive of gay rights should have suffered so many high-profile embarrassments over closeted MPs, but that is for another day.

Wh the formali over, we retreated to the bar where, to my surprise, beme obv that this cross-party gay group was about 80% Tory. We chatted about many issu, cludg social liberalism, homosexualy and Alan Dunn (the first servg Tory MP to make a cisn to e out). Lord Tebb has famoly robt views on sodomy, and once suggted that gays shouldn't be allowed to hold top ernment jobs such as home secretary.

GAY TORY

He uldn't have been more civil or full of rpect for gay dividuals, cludg Alan the Conservative party, while sometim negative about homosexualy the abstract, is perhaps generally well-mannered at the level of the dividual. And maybe that kd of personal open-mdns has ma easier than you would thk to be a gay Tory. Matthew Sephton, who ns LGBTory, the Conservative LGBT group, told me he has never experienced hostily as an out gay man at a lol party level his 10 years as a member.

In the same ve, Furnival speculat that the Tory party's acceptance of eccentricy might have ma appealg to many a gay man. I quickly fd that the more people I talk to about the gay Tori, the ls clear I get.

You fd bs of everythg different – who do ed enjoy a iendship wh Tebb – thks lol parti did have some unpleasantns about them: was impossible to be an openly gay ndidate the early 90s. He me out only once he'd tablished sufficient senry to be known not only for his, why then do gay men jo the Tori? Some people harbour an awkward clash of feelgs – homosexual attractn on the one hand and shame or embarrassment about that attractn on the other.

I’M PROUD TO BE BOTH GAY AND A TORY. AND NO, THAT DON’T MAKE ME A ‘TRAOR’

So the theory go that, this se, the tenncy is eher to drop the shame or to bury the homosexual shamels will naturally tend to gravate to the left, bee that is a polil choice that validat their self-perceptn and rc the mental disfort of the ternal nflict. And for the self-loathg, the choice go the other way – a neat way to be ls homosexual is to jo the party that don't like sounds plsible, and maybe this do expla why certa homosexual men drift towards a reer the mid-ranks of the Catholic church; but I fd myself unnvced by regard to the gay members of the Conservative party, who are gay wh a pal G, not "men wh homosexual tennci". Those members of ParliOut, for example, looked as fortably gay as anyone I know on the left.

Certaly shar a taste for theatrily wh many the gay muny.

GAY TORY MP LEE ROWLEY THKS SOME LGBT+ PEOPLE ARE ‘LOOKG FOR GRIEVANCE’

And you n tect a ht of gay sensibily other ways the Tori project themselv, example, gay culture holds a special place for those who put on an extravagantly brave ont (thk Hyacth Bucket); or for those who mata strength agast the odds, or who face rejectn or adversy (or their own mons) wh style.

Take the classic gay ins – Judy Garland, Liza Melli and Barbra Streisand. I wouldn't put Margaret Thatcher to the same fay as them, but her stggle agast the nventns of her time perhaps mak her a distant I wre this, I n almost persua myself there is somethg , but unfortunately I spect 's a theory for the wrong kd of gays. In the se of gay Tori, there is one particularly silly variant of the tegory, which asserts that gayns is bred public schools and th fs wh Conservatism like hand , there is strong evince that gayns is not bred any kd of schoolg at all, but the mother's womb.

THE TTH ABOUT LIFE AS A GAY TORY MP

And anyway, the Conservativ n't realistilly be portrayed as the party of public schools given that nsistently attracts a 30-40% share of the that versn fails, there is a more general class-based hypothis that gayns, like the Conservative party, is a middle to upper-class tenncy. A study published 2002 of of gay upl and parable straight on found that the gay men were, on average, slightly better paid (9%) and somewhat better ted.

INSI THE MDS OF YOUNG GAY TORI

In fact, the thors' rearch suggted that, given their skill levels, the gay men should have been earng 15% more. In parg the "gentleman's club and workg men's club, one is arguably more approachable for a gay man".

That's about as far as I would stretch all, don't sound as though I'm dog much to expla the strange phenomenon of the gay Tori at all. Both gay men and Conservativ e many different varieti, you n make only the loost of generalisatns about eher, and is th not surprisg that there is some tersectn between the two. Bee gay men are not all self-loathg, mp or middle class, or any of the above, you don't need a theory that draws on any specific characteristics at all.

This isn't a strange phenomenon; is polics as everybody has always played short, when you stop rcg all the players this polil drama to stereotyp, the strangens of the phenomenon of the gay Tori evaporat.

I’M GAY… AND A TORY

Gay men have bills to pay, aspiratns to fulfil and beliefs about the shape of society that drive their party affiliatn.

Even the gay Tori themselv are not all one and the same. Er, that's is still tertg to reflect on the mdset of those who stuck wh the Conservativ the 1980s; but for most of them tribally loyal to the party at that stage, I spect s negativy towards homosexualy was mostly seen as an aberratn. Gay supporters jt had to regnise  as such, and fight agast as bt they uld while upholdg support for the rt of the Conservative judgment that Clse 28 was a temporary flt and that normal service would soon be rumed did eventually e to be vdited wh the rise of a new generatn and a relatively socially liberal lear the form of David there is a lson, simply that the Conservative party and the gay muny are perhaps more diverse alns than most polil and social riture allows.

She highlighted his vot to repeal Sectn 28, pass same-sex marriage and lift the ban on foreign embassi flyg the Pri flag – but nveniently skipped past her hband’s e of homophobic slurs, cludg the phrase “tank-topped bum boys”, which he has repeatedly refed to apologise for. Pardons for those nvicted of gay sex offenc.