Welcome to the gayest parliament
in the world!
You are either over the moon by the result
of the election or mortified. But what’s
done is done. However, if you are one of
the devastated, you can take heart from
the fact that despite the rise of UKIP and
a definitive overall victory for the right,
this is in fact the gayest parliament ever!
Pink representation in the House of
Commons has not always been great.
Until 1984, there were no openly LGBTs
in The House at all. The first was Chris
Smith, now Baron Smith of Finsbury. He
had been an MP for some time before he
came out and for a while, he stood alone
as the only out Member of Parliament.
There had of course been rumours.
Maureen Colquhoun was known to be
a lesbian in certain circles, but she was
married to a man all the while she was an
MP and was not open about her sexuality
until sometime later. Jeremy Thorpe was
also a gay MP, but saw his political career
collapse when he was outed after a gay
scandal. In a time when homosexual acts
were still illegal, a court case followed the
scandal and he lost his seat soon after,
despite being acquitted.
But the dark ages of British politics seem
Imperial College is fully committed to equity, diversity and
inclusion. We value the individual contributions of all our staff
and students.
We recognise our reputation relies on the people who make up
its diverse and high achieving community. We are a Stonewall
Champion and have run the LGBT Role Models programme
in-house.
We have been recognised by Gires as an exemplary institution for
supporting our Trans community. Imperial College London has a
well-established LGBT, race equality and disability networks.
We believe in order to be successful we must attract and
retain the best staff and students. To find out more about our
employment opportunities go to:
where science is leading
to be over as a colossal 32 openly gay LGBTs now have
seats in The House. That makes just under 5% of the
total MPs! According to analysis by the New Statesman
magazine, 13 are Labour MPs, 12 are Conservatives and
six represent the SNP. This figure has risen from 26 in
the last election.
When compared on the world stage, these stats
are definitely impressive! Sweden, a country
known to be very gay friendly, only has 12 and
the Netherlands only has 10.
Unexpectedly, the Conservatives were
actually the party that fielded the most
LGBT candidates – 39! Although slightly
disappointingly, only 3 of those were female.
So we now have the gayest Parliament
ever, but who are the super-stars to
look out for? Certainly Mhairi
Black has already turned heads
by being the youngest MP at
the moment and she joins the
ranks of the SNP invasion.
Labour MP for Hove Peter
Kyle might well flutter a few
hearts in his constituency
and could be the first gay
sex symbol in Parliament.
Ben Howlett is a new kid
on the block in bath having
taken the seat from Labour,
but he is expected to be a
strong voice in what has
rapidly become the pro-gay
Conservative party.
Equality takes time and
this even applies to the
The House of Commons,
but at last it seems as
though LGBTs finally
have a strong and loud
voice in British politics.
SUMMER 2015
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