Ruth Davidson demands assurances about LGBT rights from Theresa May

Ruth Davidson has asked for assurances that LGBT+ rights won’t be affected by the Conservative Party teaming up with the DUP. Theresa May failed to get an overall majority in this week’s General Election, and she’s now in the midst of securing a deal with the anti-gay party to secure a majority to govern with. During an interview with the BBC today (June 10), the Scottish Conservative leader revealed that she spoke to the Prime Minister in a bid to assure the LGBT community that nothing would change. Davidson told the BBC: “I was fairly straightforward with her [Theresa May] and I told her that there were a number of things that count to me more than the party. “One of them is country, one of the others is LGBTI rights. I asked for a categoric assurance that if any deal or scoping deal was done with the DUP there would be absolutely no rescission of LGBTI rights in the rest of the UK, in Great Britain, and that we would use any influence that we had to advance LGBTI rights in Northern Ireland. “It’s an issue very close to my heart and one that I wanted categoric assurances from the Prime Minister on, and I received [them].” The DUP, which is currently lead by former First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster, has a long and well-documented history of opposing LGBT equality. Founded in the early 1970s by evangelical Protestant minister and loyalist Ian Paisley, in 1977 it launched the ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’ campaign, which sought to prevent the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland.