Just last week, I blogged about the possibilities of legalized same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom (where it seems likely that same-sex marriage will be legalized in Scotland by the Scottish Parliament before the UK Parliament enacts legal same-sex marriage in England and Wales).
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Today a more quiet milestone occurred when the Scottish Conservatives selected openly gay Ruth Davidson to be their leader within the Scottish Parliament. This is surprising for a number of reasons beyond the fact that she's gay and leading a center right party, who once campaigned against LGBT rights. Davidson only joined the Conservative Party a few years ago, she is only 32 years old, and is a new member of the Scottish Parliament (she was just elected this May). Yet she was UK Prime Minister David Cameron's pick for the position as well as Anabel Goldie's (the outgoing leader of the Scottish Tories) pick for the position.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
To understand the role here of the Scottish Parliament, their legislative role is similar to that of a state legislature here. Davidson is technically not the first LGBT person to lead a Scottish political party faction (the Scottish Green Party is led by openly bisexual Patrick Harvie) but to my knowledge she is the first openly gay person to lead any faction of a significant UK political party. I should point out that the Tories are a third or fourth place party in Scotland depending on the election but they are still a significant political party within the greater United Kingdom, they currently run the country along with the Liberal Democrats.
This is a significant milestone because Davidson helped break a sexual orientation barrier. Today, any young gay or lesbian Scot can look at Ruth Davidson and know that not only can they grow up to be elected to office but that they can rise to the top of the political ladder too.
This is also significant because it demonstrates that a center-right political party can support sexual orientation equality. The Tories were once champions of a military ban on gays and lesbians and champions of laws prohibiting schools from teaching about LGBT people. Yet today, their party leader, Prime Minister David Cameron, supports same-sex marriage and their party sub-leader within the Scottish Parliament is openly gay. You have to give some credit to the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. Unlike other right wing parties in Europe and Canada who have simply dropped support for discrimination from the agenda as a talking point and a political issue, the British Tories, under Cameron, have actively taken a role in supporting equality. Although I don't expect Republicans to ever follow suit, I think that the change of heart by British Conservatives just goes to show you that can fight for sexual orientation equality and you can change hearts and minds for the better.