A record number of LGBTQ people were just elected to the British Parliament
The British election was remarkable for many things — particularly the weak showing of Theresa May’s Conservative Party. But there was a milestone less widely noted: British voters elected 45 out LGBTQ candidates to parliament — 7 percent of its 650 members.
Those 45 MPs are an increase over the already high-water mark of 32 elected in 2015. In the intervening two years, seven incumbent MPs came out — leaving 39 sitting members defending their seats last week. All but two were reelected and they were joined by eight new members. Among these 45 LGBTQ members, there are now 19 from the Conservative Party, 19 from the Labour Party and seven from the Scottish Nationalist Party. In total, there were 159 LGBTQ candidates running in the elections.
In a recent study, Gabriele Magni and I found that being LGBTQ, and out, actually was a net advantage in the 2015 British general election — in particular for Labour candidates, competitive Conservatives and candidates in rural areas.
That advantage appears to have been confirmed in 2017. The Tories only made eight gains outside of Scotland and two of them were by LGBTQ Tory candidates. Two of the new Scottish Conservative MPs are also gay. LGBTQ MPs from the Scottish Nationalist Party were more likely to hold their seats than their straight colleagues and their 10 LGBTQ candidates outperformed their straight colleagues by 1.2 percent. In the Labour Party, LGBTQ MPs made four seat gains.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/11/a-record-number-of-lgbtq-people-were-just-elected-to-the-u-k-parliament/
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Thanks n2doc!
