HomeLGBT History1980. The Red Fag Flying: Gay in the Labour Party

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1980. The Red Fag Flying: Gay in the Labour Party — 1 Comment

  1. In this context I want to acknowledge the amazing courage of Chris Smith, former Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, now Baron Smith of Finsbury, in publically coming out as Gay in 1984, and in 2005 as being HIV+.

    Denis Campbell, in The Observer, on 30 January, 2005, reported the following:

    “Chris Smith has been changing the face of British public life for 20 years. He was Britain’s first openly gay MP, the first gay cabinet minister and is now the first political figure to admit to being HIV-positive, during a career which saw him become one of the country’s key decision-makers.
    ‘My name is Chris Smith. I’m the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, and I’m gay’.

    It was with those words, his hands shaking as he spoke, that Smith finally publicly acknowledged the sexuality he had kept secret for a decade, and became Britain’s first MP to come out of the closet. His unparalleled honesty earned him a five-minute standing ovation.”

    To read the full article, see https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/jan/30/uk.aids

    Dorothy’s List, a campaign fund established by LGBT Labour to support lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans candidates standing to represent the Labour Party in Parliament, was renamed the Chris Smith List in in recognition of the ground breaking significance of his disclosures after the 2010 election. In 2009, 25 years after his initial disclosure, Chris was awarded the freedom of the Borough, the highest award Islington council can bestow.

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