Kezia Dugdale, the leader of the Scottish Labour party, has revealed she has a same-sex partner

Kezia Dugdale, the leader of the Scottish Labour party has casually come out during an interview sharing that she has a same sex partner.

Speaking to the Fabian Society, Kezia Dugdale said she was in a same sex relationship but she considered her personal life to be a private matter.

“I don’t talk about it very much because I don’t feel I need to. And there’s something too about how meteoric my career has been. I am generally calm, almost serene. I don’t get easily stressed or battered. But I need a bit of stability to do that, and that means my private life is my private life. That’s the thing I just have to have that nobody gets to touch, and that gives me the strength to be calm elsewhere.” Dugdale said.

Dugdlae became the party’s leader in 2015 following it’s worst general election defeat ever.

In the 2015 British general election the Scottish National Party won 56 out of the 59 constituencies in Scotland, while the Labour party lost a massive 40 seats.

Liberal Democrat member Charles Kennedy, who lost his seat, referred to the landslide electoral change as; “the night of long sgian dubhs.” A sgian dubh is a traditional Scottish dagger.

Dugdale’s low key announcement has been heralded as a sign that British voters are accepting of LGBTI people in politics and wider society. The Independent newspaper described the announcement as causing “no more than a ripple”

Dugdale is not alone as a LGBT politician, she joins a number of out and proud political leaders in Scotland.

The Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Green leader, Patrick Harvie, and the Scottish UKIP leader, David Coburn, are all out as lesbian, gay or bisexual.  Kezia Dugdale’s declaration makes Scotland the only country in the world where most big parties are led by gays, lesbians or bisexual people.

OIP Staff