Has Britain reached a post-homophobic state of grace? Or do the better angels of our nature just come out at election time? (A rarely stated thesis). While barely disguised homophobia continues to blight our schools, streets and screens, electoral politics seems to have reached a point where being a gay or straight barely registers on the hustings.
The last parliament was defined by the fight for marriage equality and its aftermath – especially David Cameron’s uneasy relationship on the issue with the rest of the Conservative party. Afterwards, there was a fear of backlash: a fear that Tory voters would punish the party for being too socially liberal, and Tory big-wigs would back away from installing candidates who were outside of the traditional mainstream. But these fears proved to be unfounded in 2015.
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