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'I don't believe sexuality is an issue now,' she says
Ruth Davidson
Lesbian Tory contests today's Glasgow byelection
An openly lesbian Conservative candidate will contest the Labour stronghold of Glasgow North East in Thursday's byelection, which is being held after Speaker Michael Martin was forced to stand down during the expenses scandal.
Ruth Davidson, 30, who lives with her partner in Partick, Glasgow, is a kick-boxing former Sunday school teacher who once broke her back serving in the TA.
Asked by the Scottish Sun about 'campaigning on the mean streets of one of Scotland's most deprived and drug-addled constituencies', she said: "Some folk joke that I must be the bravest woman in Scotland going around Springburn asking folk to vote Tory. But that's nothing compared to worrying about whether you'll ever walk again."
She claims that the selection of an openly gay woman to stand in such a high-profile byelection is proof that the Conservative party has changed. "I don't believe sexuality is an issue now," she said. "In terms of the Conservative party, we saw David Cameron standing up in front of Stonewall and saying, 'Look, we apologise for Section 28. We got it wrong'. It was an unequivocal apology on the subject.
"In terms of coming out I had my first female partner about four or five years ago. I was open about it at the time and I'm open about it now. But I don't tend to talk about it because it's not the most interesting part of my life, you know? Some people are gay and that's it."
