Tuesday, 8 January 2008

The 50 most powerful LGBT people in British politics

As we look forward to another year, we cannot help but ponder the fact that if Gordon Brown had called an autumn election we could have been hearing a very different Queen's Speech last month.

But if the Conservatives or even the Liberal Democrats had won the election, there would be gay people at the heart of government.

The purpose of this PinkNews.co.uk Top 50 list is to demonstrate the presence of gay and lesbian people at the highest levels of British politics.

What a difference a decade makes.

In 1997 the age of consent was set higher for gay men, homophobia in schools was being exacerbated by the draconian symbolism of Section 28, lesbian and gay people had no protection at work or when accessing goods and services and had no legal recognition of their relationships.

Today every leading political party not only has gay MPs, those out politicians are on every frontbench, and at the heart of power in Downing St. Read more
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1 comment:

David said...

I think the list includes 14 MPs, the rest being in other parliaments, local government, the Unions, journalists and a blogger. I suppose that this is more or less representative of society. The number of gays in public life should not be exagerated. The Labour party seems to value gay rights and gay votes over christian rights and votes and the other main parties probably follow them in this.

David Hey
West Yorkshire