Once gay ndidat were monised – or forced to hi the closet. Now Wtmster boasts 32 LGB MPs, more than any other untry. But, as gay policians past and prent nfirm, the battle is not over yet
Contents:
- HOW STLAND BEME THE WORLD LEAR ON LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL REPRENTATN
- THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE
- SNP CHIEF ANG ROBERTSON ‘PROUD’ HIS PARTY IS THE ‘GAYT’ WTMSTER AS HAS MOST GAY AND LBIAN MPS
- THE UK’S PARLIAMENT IS STILL THE GAYT THE WORLD AFTER 2019 ELECTN
HOW STLAND BEME THE WORLD LEAR ON LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL REPRENTATN
* gay snp mps *
"I get more abe for beg a Tory Stland than I do for beg a gay woman, " says Annie Wells, one of a batch of new MSPs voted at the electn this month that has ma the untry's parliament the most proportnally gay-iendly on step up to a seat Holyrood has brought the total number of openly gay, lbian and bisexual policians to ten, 7% of all MSPs. You wouldn't be openly gay , " she new MSP for Glasgow also adms that her party's passn for LGBT rights uld be better.
"We need to make more of showg that regardls of your genr, or if you’re gay, straight, bisexual, trans, that everyone's wele.
Davidson is one of four openly-gay party lears Stland.
THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE
THE boss of the SNP Wtmster has boasted he leads the “gayt parliamentary party.” * gay snp mps *
Joe FzPatrick is a gay SNP MSP. Some SNP members cludg the openly gay member, Jam Neale Hanvey, broke away om the party to form the Alba party 2021.
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.
SNP CHIEF ANG ROBERTSON ‘PROUD’ HIS PARTY IS THE ‘GAYT’ WTMSTER AS HAS MOST GAY AND LBIAN MPS
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. 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?
THE UK’S PARLIAMENT IS STILL THE GAYT THE WORLD AFTER 2019 ELECTN
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.