Last week, elections took place all over the country to elect local councils, assemblies and the Scottish Parliament. The results were varied and, of course, there were some winners and some losers.
However, the LGBT community were big winners as it is now likely that there are more openly-LGBT councillors than ever before representing all nature of councils, of all Parties, right across the United Kingdom.
There was a breakthrough in Scotland, where, with the election of Ruth Davidson, the Conservatives now have their first openly-lesbian Member of the Scottish Parliament.
Matthew Sephton, who chairs LGBTory, the Conservative LGBT group commented:
"I'm very pleased that there were record numbers of openly-LGBT Conservative candidates standing in the various elections this year. Right across the country, openly-gay Conservatives were elected in inner-city seats such as Salford, as well as rural seats such as those in Oxfordshire, Kent and Gloucestershire. In Reading, 40% of the Conservative group is now lesbian or gay.
It is great to see such large numbers of openly-gay candidates standing in elections, across the political spectrum. It can only be a good thing for our democracy to have such active role models out there, getting involved and influencing policy and I am proud that the Conservatives are leading the way."