Nigel Evans, a Welsh member of the U.K. Parliament, managed to be absent during the vote to legalize civil unions for gays, and missed another vote to permit gays to adopt, and and at one point voted against equalizing the age of consent for gay sex acts (though two years later he voted for it). And now Mr. Evans is making another splash: he’s coming out.
It’s been an “open secret,” says the BBC, but that’s all coming to an end as Evans, a member of the Tory party, publicly backs ParliOut, the newly formed LGBT group for queer staffers working in Parliament. (Fellow openly gay lawmaker Chris Bryant sits on the board of ParliOut and “welcomes” Evans’ news, tweeting: “Glad to see Nigel Evans is ‘coming out’. An open secret in Parliament for years.”)
Evans, who has never been married and does not have a partner, will drop the official reveal tomorrow in a newspaper interview, though word has leaked widely ahead of the announcement. It will be followed on Monday with a party for ParliOut’s official launch. Onlookers are right to be curious about Evans’ voting record. In addition to those missed votes mentioned above, it was only in 2003 that Evans, who held office since 1992, began voting pro-gay, voting to repeal Section 28, which barred the “promotion” of homosexuality. Since then, he’s been showing his face at Stonewall events (which, uh, is not the same thing as enacting equality legislation).
Evans’ coming out brings the total number of openly gay lawmakers in the House Of Commons to 22; thirteen are Tories. The last lawmaker to come out was Crispin Blunt, who revealed his secret in August after a reckless regard for LGBT equality.
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So why is Evans coming out now? Oh, maybe because he’s being considered for the post of Commons Speaker, suggests the Daily Mail, and revealing this closet skeleton is an effort to squash any potential roadblocks.
UPDATE: Evans, who says he consulted with Gareth Thomas about coming out, tells the Daily Mail the reason he’s coming out now is because a fellow lawmaker threatened to out him: “The MP [who Evans won’t identify] was saying to anyone who would listen, ‘Why is it that Nigel Evans leads a life whereby he is gay to some people and not others?’ … I could not afford it to be used as leverage against me. I couldn’t take the risk. I don’t want any other MP to face that kind of nastiness again.”
Kieran
Umm, is there anybody in the British Parliament who is NOT gay?
Rule Brittania!
ChiGuy76
Oh look! The British version of Ken Mehlman.
Well, better late than never. Now, it’s time to start making amends for the anti-gay votes cast. Get to work!
Tallskin
I have mixed feelings about this. Bastards like him have ridden on the backs of people who have fought hard for gay equality over the past two decades- and in his case even opposing Tony Blair’s attempts to pass gay equality legislation.
But on the other hand it’s good that he feels able to come out with no bad effects, which is an indication of how much has been achieved.
Americans=Rightwingers (John From England)
Ooh, there are soooooo many gays in UK politics!
SteveC
There aren’t THAT many gay politicians in Britain. About 25 out of 650 I think are openly gay.
This Evans creature is a hypocritical, self-hating prick. He has a lot of work to do to make up for his homophobia.
Cam
So it’s been an open secret in Parliment that somebody who was hurting the cause for gays was gay? Those dicks.
randy
He needs to explain exactly why he voted anti-gay all those years and make a full apology. Then he has to issue a direct challenge to all fellow lawmakers to not make the same mistake he did, and that if they are gay and voting anti-gay, he will out them himself.
Only then will he begin to make amends.
*J_C*
everybody has a time and moment and everybody reaches it differently. people will always come out on their own time, and for most of us its not normally a problem, but i can see where somebody like him; somebody who has an opportunity to change people’s lives. then it’s outrages that they wouldn’t couldn’t do something to help the cause. be sorry for him because his true life started later. or fu*k it idk
L.
@Tallskin: Not to excuse his actions, but everything is relative, and even “gay-friendly” Blair took six whole leisure years of Soviet-style majorities to repeal Clause 28, so…
As for Evans’s switch from anti- to pro-gay voting in 2003, who knows if it was then that he either realized he truly and inescapably was gay, or he already knew he was and only then was able to stop with the self-loathing? While neither are medals of honor, they’re struggles many of us can relate with up to some point. The unfortunate here being that he was in a position to affect his and countless others’ lives.
I’m certainly not defending his pre-2003 record, only pointing out that others thought to be better allies and who were far more powerful somehow did change tacks at about the same time, and yet are subject to less antagonism.
Tallskin
@L
I am not sure I can work out what you’re saying
Tallskin
What I am saying is that for people of his generation (he is younger than me) there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for not being open about his sexuality.
That other tosser, the liberal democrat David Laws, who worked in the treasury, resigned when he was found to be fiddling his expenses.
http://www.queerty.com/if-britains-treasury-sec-david-laws-paid-rent-the-proper-way-he-wouldve-been-outed-20100531/
Also no excuse.
robert in nyc
Tallskin, now lets see Evans make up for his grievous past mistakes by making some very loud noise about marriage equality in his party which has been pretty silent since Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democratic officially endorsed after the election. As part of the Tory coalition government, he too hasn’t mentioned another word about it, neither has Labour’s Ed Miliband. What’s with Ben Summerskill’s silence since his reversal on this issue? Have you checked StonewallUK’s website lately? Not one word about it. Leave it to Peter Tatchell to start the ball rolling with that Equal Love lawsuit he’s bringing to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of eight couples, four straight couples who want to form a civil partnership and four gay couples who want to marry. Will be interesting to see how that pan’s out. If the court rules in their favor, its conceivable the Tory government may not have any option but to grant couples of same-sex and opposite sex genders access to both institutions.
the crustybastard
When he could have helped YOU, Mr. Evans could never find the courage.
When he can help HIMSELF, Mr. Evans suddenly becomes terribly bold.
Christ, what an asshole.
Obama DID say DADT would happen on his watch... (John From England)
@the crustybastard:
Tell me about it. He was gonna be pushed out by a labour mp. Twat.
alan brickman
Another gay who hates gays…duh!!!
John (CA)
@robert in nyc: Essentially, it is a stalemate. All three leaders have reasons to avoid the subject at the moment:
Prime Minister David Cameron wants to avoid same-sex marriage because the Tories are already winning. As such, they have no use for a wedge issue that will surely expose most of their MPs as less than accepting and cause unnecessary grief.
Nick Clegg does not want to jeopardize his alliance with the Tories because the Liberal Democrats’ poll numbers are absolutely dismal. They will almost certainly suffer huge losses at the next general election. And picking a fight with Cameron over marriage equality would only hasten the government’s collapse.
Likewise, Labour is in total disarray after thirteen long years in power. They recognize that same-sex marriage will come to the United Kingdom eventually. But Miliband obviously wants a Labour government to do it. Simply handing a potential campaign issue over to the other major parties isn’t in the cards. This is something they can use to get gay and lesbian voters to flock to their banner in the future.
Anthony Glyadchenko
One down, one hundred more to go.
Brits = Morons [John in America]
Dude is fugly. What is it with Brits? Why are so many fugly? Guys and girls.
And fix your damn teeth. Try brushing them every once in a while. Jesus…..
ILoveDudes
LOL @ # 18 . Now….c’mon. That’s not cool. Lots of Brits are goodlooking (Prince Harry, Trevor Rees-Jones..) I admit the British guys who hang out on Queerty are annoying, but that’s no reason to insult the looks.
Jaroslaw
If I missed this above, sorry – seems like every so often we debate the merits of outing and not outing – seems like yet another case FOR outing people. He himself said he came out because someone else was going to out him… and 18 – brushing teeth doesn’t make teeth white when the mother took certain treatments while pregnant.
StevenW
@Brits = Morons [John in America]: He’s 53 and a Welsh tory MP – expecting an adonis is a little over optimistic, no?
robert in nyc
No. 19… I agree. Having lived in the UK for a while, I can safely say there are many great looking British guys around, both gay and straight. No race has a monopoly on ugliness either. Obviously, Brits=Morons hasn’t lived there to make such an idiotic statement, maybe he’s just anti-Brit or something. Statements such as his only enforce the myth of the “ugly” American in other parts of the world, sadly.
stephen chandler
THIS IS AN EMAIL THAT I SENT TO HIS OFFICE I DO HOPE HE READ IT
Well you have now come out
I remember you on the Sunday morning programs calling homosexuals,
I was 14 years old when I told my mother and by 15 I was enjoying all the fun of the Manchester gay scene well before it was called Gaychester and we had the gay village.
In the late 80s I had a good laugh at you, how you got so heated about our lifestyles and how wrong you thought it was and using religion to help you, when all the time you were hiding your dirty little secret from the world and the woman(your wife) you used as cover, it is her feeling I would think about more than yours.
Well now I am not laughing,I am furious you have the nerve to say you now have the strength to admit to yourself that you are a homosexual, you jumped before you were pushed (possibly).
I rang your constituency office this morning and asked if you were going to resign and was told No. that is a travesty you should leave and never show your face.
When you are at this gay party tonight you will be enjoying freedoms that have been gained by gays that you have put down in the past.
Now your face will be all over the gay mags and turning up at madi Gra but all I see is a BIGOT
Stephen Chandler
I heard your jovial interview with Jeremy Vine today and was disgusted at the light hearted way he passed by all the hurtful and nasty comments you made.” I was Wrong”.Clause 28 nobody needs to be protected from homosexuality.
Goodbye.
IT SAYS WHAT I THINK
Jaroslaw
Stephen – well done! Not too mean or nasty and to the point…
But as in the case of Ken Melhman here in the USA – write him also and ask “are you contrite?” If so, what are you going to do to try to remedy the damage you have done? (or contributed to?)
No point to waste the power now that we know it is there.
robert in nyc
Stephen, I enjoin Jaroslaw, well done!
tib
What a sleaze bag this guy is.
stephen chandler
Thankyou for your nice compliments on my opinion
But I have said my piece now and ,
Well i hope he does not become the speaker in the house of Commons.