2 more MPs e out as gay to take Hoe of Commons total to 35 | Daily Mail Onle

Contents:

• ISRAEL SET TO HAVE RERD NUMBER OF OPENLY GAY MPS
• WTMSTER NOW HAS 32 OPENLY GAY, LBIAN AND BISEXUAL MPS
• THE UK’S PARLIAMENT IS STILL THE GAYT THE WORLD AFTER 2019 ELECTN
• GAY MPS: THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOWS WTMSTER'S ATTU TOWARDS LGBT POLICIANS IS CHANGG
• THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE
• ‘IT’S PART OF WHO I AM’: THE GAY LIBERAL MPS FOR WHOM THE POLIL IS MORE THAN PERSONAL
• NAMIBIAN MPS BACK ANTI-GAY LAW SPE SUPREME COURT LG
• 2 MORE MPS E OUT AS GAY TO TAKE HOE OF COMMONS TOTAL TO 35
• RERD NUMBER OF OPENLY GAY MPS ELECTED TO HOE OF COMMONS

ISRAEL SET TO HAVE RERD NUMBER OF OPENLY GAY MPS

Image source, RtersImage ptn, The MPs who are gay reprent five polil partiIsrael is set to have a rerd number of openly gay MPs after new l allowg bet members to give up their seats me to gay MPs om five parti across the polil spectm will serve the 120-seat Knset as a rult. Last year, Israel appoted s first openly gay untry has the most progrsive attu towards LGBTQ people the Middle East, spe opposn om some nservative sectns of are protected by anti-discrimatn laws, have adoptn and same-sex herance rights, and have been allowed to serve the ary sce 1993. A member of a centrist factn - Yorai Lahav-Hertzano - will bee the sixth openly gay MP when he is sworn next source, KnsetImage ptn, Yorai Lahav-Hertzano will jo the opposn parti parliamentHe replac one of five MPs om Alternate Prime Mister Benny Gantz's Blue and Whe party, who submted their rignatns on Wednday unr a new law which allows MPs who are also misters to give up their seats but stay year, Amir Ohana, om Prime Mister Benjam Netanyahu's Likud party, beme Israel's first openly gay member of bet when he was appoted actg jtice mister.

Wtmster be the world's gayt Parliament wh 32 openly gay, lbian and bisexual MPs There are 12 Conservative, 13 Labour and six SNP MPs who are openly gayIn the last Parliament there were 26 gay, lbian and bisexual members Study also nclud there were 155 electn ndidat who were gay Published: 23:14 BST, 13 May 2015 | Updated: 13:14 BST, 14 May 2015. Bra now has 32 openly gay, lbian and bisexual MPs ParliamentBra now has the gayt Parliament the world after last week’s are 32 openly gay, lbian and bisexual MPs – jt unr 5 per cent of the total number the Commons.

This dwarfs the 12 and ten the parliaments of Swen and the Netherlands rpectively, both untri that pri themselv on their liberal attu to gay rights.

WTMSTER NOW HAS 32 OPENLY GAY, LBIAN AND BISEXUAL MPS

Acrdg to analysis by the New Statman magaze, 13 are Labour MPs, 12 are Conservativ and six reprent the the last Parliament there were 26 gay, lbian and bisexual Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative year the Conservativ put up more openly gay ndidat than any other party – 39 men and three women.

THE UK’S PARLIAMENT IS STILL THE GAYT THE WORLD AFTER 2019 ELECTN

Out of their 13 gay, lbian and bisexual MPs om the prev Parliament, 12 stood for re-electn and only one – Eric Ollerenshaw – was feated. His loss was ma up for by the electn of Ben Howlett of the ten seats Labour took om the Tori, three were won by gay ndidat – W Streetg, Peter Kyle and Cathere Smh.

The ne cumbent Labour gay MPs held on fortably and the SNP returned seven gay and lbian MPs, cludg 20-year-old Mhairi Black, the youngt MP to be elected sce SNP parliamentary party is now 12. 5 per cent gay, lbian and bisexual – the hight proportn of any party the Cathere Smh, left and W Streetg, right, who are openly homosexual won seats for Labour prevly held by the Conservativ The SNP returned seven gay and lbian MPs cludg 20-year-old Mhairi Black, pictured, the youngt MP to be elected sce 1667 The New Statman lculated that there were 155 out gay ndidat May 2015.

GAY MPS: THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOWS WTMSTER'S ATTU TOWARDS LGBT POLICIANS IS CHANGG

Their report also nclud that Tory gay, lbian and bisexual ndidat tend to perform nsirably better than their straight lleagu. Openly gay Labour MP Peter Kyle celebrat beg elected to reprent Hove at the recent electn Ben Howlett, is the openly gay Conservative MP, reprentg Bath, wng the seat om the Liberal DemocratsHowever all four gay and bisexual Liberal Democrat MPs were oted om their Reynolds, om the LGBT [Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr] Reprentatn and Rights Rearch Iniative, said: ‘In some plac, beg out seems to have helped the ndidate’s vote. Levels of gay, bi and lbian reprentatn the UK parliament have remaed stable at the electn after a Tory surge.

The Sttish Natnal Party now has the hight proportn of gay, bi and lbian reprentatn of any party parliament, at 21 per cent, while 5. Sign up for the View om Wtmster email for expert analysis straight to your boxGet our ee View om Wtmster emailOne of the most remarkable, yet pleasg, statistics that fascated polil number-cnchers at last year’s electn was that the Hoe of Commons end up wh 32 lbian, gay and bisexual MPs. LGBT History Month is celebrated Febary – and this photograph of 28 MPs and peers is a b of history self, as is the largt number of publicly out parliamentarians pictured together at one time, om a parliament wh more gay members than any the Barll, who prevly worked for the then First Mister of Stland, Alex Salmond, said: “I only me out to myself and to my fay durg the electn.

Lord Chris Smh is the picture – he was the first openly gay MP the 1980s and also the first to be appoted to the bet when he beme Culture Secretary 1997. 10 Ia Stewart The Milton Keyn South MP is a former puty chairman of LGBTory, and won plds for a speech durg the last parliament on how he was bullied at school for beg gay. The pneers of LGBT rights 2015Show all 611 Chris Smh, Baron Smh of Fsbury As pla Chris Smh the 1980s, he ma history by beg the first openly gay man the Commons.

THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE

13 Stuart Andrew Parliamentary private secretary to the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughl, he told the Commons three years ago of how he was once “beaten unnsc” a homophobic attack. 16 Brian Paddick, Baron Paddick of Brixton The two-time Liberal Democrat ndidate for London mayor was prevly famo for beg the untry’s most senr openly gay police officer. 19 Waheed Alli, Baron Alli of Norbury The 51-year-old is an openly gay Mlim who ma his fortune the media dtry before beg a peer 1998.

21 Mart Docherty Somethg of an extrovert, the SNP MP for Wt Dunbartonshire arrived at this photoshoot askg, loudly, “Where are the gays?

‘IT’S PART OF WHO I AM’: THE GAY LIBERAL MPS FOR WHOM THE POLIL IS MORE THAN PERSONAL

23 David Munll The Secretary of State for Stland beme the first ever openly gay Conservative bet mister last month, a cisn he said was “one of the most important” of his life. 26 Stewart McDonald The Glasgow South SNP MP, a member of the Commons Transport Select Commtee, clared his party to be the “gayt group Wtmster” last year, wh 12 per cent out.

Stephen Twigg was gay – a “practisg homosexual”, to e a formula still popular at the time – and though mours about Michael Portillo’s sexualy had been swirlg for years, he was most fely not. The day after Twigg’s victory, Chris Smh, an MP sce 1983 and out sce 1984, beme the first openly gay secretary of state – culture, naturally.

The years rolled by and anti-gay legislatn was rolled back. Now Bra fds self wh the queert legislature the world: 32 of the Uned Kgdom’s 650 MPs llg themselv gay, lbian or bisexual.

NAMIBIAN MPS BACK ANTI-GAY LAW SPE SUPREME COURT LG

And two nstuenci last week – Lanster & Fleetwood and Milton Keyn South – both the Tory and Labour ndidat were gay, lbian or bisexual.

Proportnally, though, the SNP is now by far the gayt party Wtmster, wh 12% of s MPs chalkg themselv up as sexual may scratch our heads as to the meang of the numbers: is a surprise that there are so many out Tori? How did a untry raised on tabloid sndal end up so at ease wh gay public figur?

2 MORE MPS E OUT AS GAY TO TAKE HOE OF COMMONS TOTAL TO 35

Homosexualy was crimalised England and Wal 1967 by reformg home secretary Roy Jenks (Stland had to wa until 1980, and Northern Ireland until 1982), but prosecutns for sexual offenc ntued to snare many gay men to the 90s. In addn, a vic prs culture of blackmail and exposure ma life difficult for gay people who wanted to participate ernment and Tatchell, who stood as the Labour ndidate for Bermondsey 1983, was the subject of a notorly homophobic mpaign by his Liberal opponents. It was impossible for any ndidate or MP to be openly gay whout the fear of beg monised by the tabloids.

“There were lots of gay MPs, ” he says, “but they were all the closet, eher bee they were secure about their own sexualy, or bee they feared vilifitn the papers and selectn by their party. ” So wasn’t jt the prs, but the party mach that failed to treat gay and lbian people wh rpect, wed by Fleet Street’s ferocy. Constuents and rival parti said: ‘Not only is he gay and wants gay rights, he’s open and brazen about .

’”Peter Tatchell ( red shirt) jos the celebratns after MPs voted to cut the homosexual age of nsent to 16 1998.

RERD NUMBER OF OPENLY GAY MPS ELECTED TO HOE OF COMMONS

Photograph: Tony Harris/PAStill, Tatchell says there was “public revulsn” agast the homophobia he experienced, which he believ ma the tabloids more reluctant to nduct anti-gay wch-hunts, for a time, at least. As a rult, Chris Smh had an easier ri when he me out Conservativ’ relatnship wh homosexualy was equally uneasy. “I told her I was gay when I went to say goodbye to her and she put an arm on my wrist and said: ‘Matthew, that mt have been very difficult for you to say.

’”Gay MPs were tolerated, so long as discretn led. It was Edwa Currie who tabled an amendment to brg the age of nsent for gay men down om 21 to 16 – there was famoly no such law alg specifilly wh lbianism.