2 December, 2009

Friends, activists and supporters of Lord Chris Smith gathered at a central London restaurant last night to celebrate 25 years since he came out as the first openly gay MP.

The dinner raised over £3,000 for Dorothy's List - an LGBT Labour fund to support a new generation of openly lesbian and gay candidates in the forthcoming general election.

Lord Smith re-told the story of his coming out at a rally in Rugby in 1984 against a possible ban on gay employees by the town council - where he began his speech by saying "I'm Chris Smith, I'm the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury and I'm gay".

At last night's dinner, a message of congratulations was read out from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in which he praised Chris who had "blazed a trail a quarter of a century ago".

The PM wrote:

"It’s very rare that someone gives a speech which, in and of itself, changes the world. But Chris Smith did exactly that."

The money raised from the dinner brings the total for Dorothy's List, LGBT Labour candidates' general election fund, to over £10,000.