What's in this dataset
This website was created to publicly record how many Members of Parliament sitting in the UK Parliament's House of Commons are LGBT+.
The dataset shows Members of Parliament who are ‘out’ as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or with another minority sexual orientation or gender identity.
Members of Parliament are only included where it is clear that the individual has made an affirmative decision to reveal their identity publicly. This information has been collated from internet searches and publicly available information. Members of Parliament are only listed if a reliable source has been found to verify the individual's identity. These sources might include media reporting or personal testimony.
Citations and references
This dataset has been used by journalists at the BBC, Sky News and Quartz, and cited in academic publications. It has also cited as a source on Wikipedia.
Media publications
- BBC News, 11 June 2017, Election results 2017: The most diverse Parliament yet.
- BBC News, 17 December 2019, Election 2019: Britain’s most diverse Parliament.
- Sky News, 16 December 2019, General election: 2019 heralds the most diverse parliament for gender and ethnicity.
- Quartz, 17 December 2019, The UK’s new parliament is its most diverse ever.
- Cosmopolitan, 11 June 2020, Your no BS guide to the Gender Recognition Act reforms.
- Pink News, 24 June 2022, UK has record number of LGBTQ+ MPs as Labour wins crucial ‘red wall’ by-election.
Academic publications
- Bönisch, L. E (2021). What factors shape the substantive representation of LGBs in parliament? Testing the impact of minority membership, political values, and awareness. Blogpost and eprint. London School of Economics.
- Hertner, I. (2021). Gender and British Politics in B. Jones, P. Norton, & I. Hertner (Eds.), Politics UK: 10th Edition (, pp. 244-265).
- Jeffery, Heppell, Roe-Crines & Butler. (2022). Trusting Truss: Conservative MPs’ Voting Preferences in the (First) British Conservative Party Leadership Election of 2022 in Representation, Journal of Representative Democracy, 59:4 (pp. 555-572).
Government and NGO publications
- Lamprinakou, C et al (2019). Diversity of candidates and elected officials in Great Britain. Equality and Human Rights Commission.
- Juan Rodríguez, L (2023). Building inclusive democracies: A guide to strengthening the participation of LGBTI+ persons in political and electoral processes. United Nations Development Programme.
Other blog posts and reports
- Fawcett Society, January 2022, Sex and Power 2022.
- YouGov, 26 July 2022, Do Britons think a minority prime minister would improve things for minority groups?.
Who made this
Website
This website was designed and built by John Peart. This blog post explains why the website and dataset were created.
Dataset
The following people have helped to build this dataset: