Gay Tory in topless photo row
A GAY Tory has turned his back on the party after an alleged bust-up with colleagues over a topless photo shoot for a gay magazine.
Nathan Garbutt, 21, claims members of Wakefield Council's Conservative group were outraged when he agreed to pose with his shirt off for a forthcoming edition of popular gay lifestyle mag Attitude.
Conservative councillors have refuted the claim – and said Mr Garbutt only left because he disagreed with a perceived shift in Tory policy.
But the openly gay former Wakefield College student, who stood for the Tories in May's Wakefield Council elections, says he resigned after being told not to do the shoot.
He now plans to stand as an independent at the next local election – and intends to go ahead with the pictures.
He said: "I'm doing the shoot to prove politics isn't just for the old and ugly.
"Most Conservatives in Wakefield are grey-haired, grey suit-wearing, straight men. I was surprised by their reaction because I thought it was a brilliant opportunity to show we were more diverse than people think.
"I think they are worried that Wakefield people are strait-laced and it might reflect badly on them. If we were in Manchester or London, perhaps they would have been more open to it."
Mr Garbutt, who came out when he was 18, developed an interest in politics as a teenager because he was attracted by the policies of Margaret Thatcher.
He was one of the founder members of Conservative Future in Wakefield and, as the youngest candidate at the local elections in May, polled more than 900 votes in Knottingley – a record for a Tory standing in the ward.
He said: "I didn't knock on people's doors and say 'Hi, I'm your candidate, I'm gay', but most people know and it isn't a problem.
"But the local Conservatives have always tried to keep my sexuality quiet."
To comment on this story, click here I remember before a visit by Ann Widdecombe they told me not to talk about it.
“There are quite a few gay people in Conservative Future, but a lot of them are now reconsidering their positions.”
Vicky Powell, of gay equality organisation Stonewall, said the alleged reaction of Conservative members to the photo shoot was surprising.
She said: “It’s ironic that such a thing should happen at a time when the Conservative Party is making serious attempts to modernise itself in order to include all sections of the community and encourage gay voters back.
“It seems that, despite the party’s better efforts to change and encourage lesbians and gay men into its ranks, there are still visible pockets of old-school resistance when it comes to homosexuality.”
But Coun Philip Booth, Pontefract South councillor, said Mr Garbutt had never raised the issue with Conservative councillors.
He added: “As far as I understand it he has never paid his subscription to the Conservative Party, but stood as a paper candidate at the last elections because he made a request to fight to represent his own ward.
“At the end of that campaign we got a handwritten letter from him saying he wasn’t happy with David Cameron and he was leaving to join the Liberal Democrats. That was the last communication we had from him.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with sexuality. If he had raised it with us he would have been told it wasn’t an issue.”
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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