The world’s gayest parliament as Scottish Labour Party chief comes out

Kezia Dugdale, the leader of Scotland’s Labour Party, has revealed that she is lesbian.

Dugdale, 33, opened up about her sexuality in an interview with Fabian Society, published on Friday.

“I have a female partner. I don’t talk about it very much because I don’t feel I need to,” she said.

“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.”

Amazingly, she is the fourth head of a political party in the country to come out. The current leaders of Scotland’s Conservative party, the Green Party and UKIP are also openly LGBT.

In a follow-up article in the Daily Record this week, Dugdale said that she was “bowled over by the support I’ve received this weekend after deciding to share with the world that I’m in love with a woman”.

She went on to write: “The Scottish Parliament was once referred to as the rainbow parliament because of the array of party colours represented.

“While the number of Greens and socialists might have fallen back, the diversity of our Parliament remains. In fact it’s now considered the gayest parliament in the world.”

Dugdale, who took over Labour’s leadership role in August, has a considerable challenge in restoring her party to its former glory in the UK.

In a devastating blow in May last year, Labour lost 40 of its 41 seats in the UK Parliament in the general elections. It retains 38 out of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament.

Dugdale remains determined, however. “I had a choice whether to step up and do this job, and I made that choice in the midst of our worst general election defeat ever. I wasn’t going into this with my eyes closed,” she said.