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Jeffrey Edward Anthony Dudgeon MBE is a Northern Irish politician, historian and gay political activist. A member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Dudgeon was a Belfast City Councillor for the Balmoral DEA from 2014 to 2019.

Career

At the 1979 general election he stood as a "Labour Integrationist" candidate for Belfast South.

He is best known for bringing the case Dudgeon v United Kingdom to the European Court of Human Rights; this successfully challenged Northern Ireland's laws criminalising consensual sexual acts between men in private.

Dudgeon was elected onto Belfast City Council at the 2014 local elections as the UUP representative for Balmoral. During the 2014 to 2019 council term, he was one of three openly gay politicians elected to the City Council, along with Mary Ellen Campbell of Sinn Féin and Julie-Anne Corr of the Progressive Unionist Party; at the 2019 local government election, all three lost their seats. He has also published a study of Roger Casement's Black Diaries, which accepted them as genuine.

At the 2023 Northern Ireland local elections, Dudgeon stood as the UUP candidate in the Botanic DEA on Belfast City Council, but was unsuccessful.

Personal life

He is originally from East Belfast, and attended Campbell College then Magee University College and Trinity College, Dublin. He has a long-term partner.

Honours

As part of the 2012 New Year Honours, Dudgeon was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in Northern Ireland".

References

1. "Belfast City Council results". UTV. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
2. McDonald, Henry (4 June 2013). "Gay rights campaigner defends Ulster Unionist membership". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
3. "Belfast City Council results". Belfast Telegraph. 6 May 2019. Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
4. "UUP's Jeffrey Dudgeon: 'Police once raided my home and quizzed me for being gay'". Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
5. "Three openly gay politicians on newly elected Belfast City Council". Belfast Telegraph. 26 May 2014.
6. "My house came under attack, a breese block was thrown through the window". 24 February 2018. Archived from the original on 7 February 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2023 – via PressReader.
7. "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. pp. 13–15.

External links

• Article on MBE award Archived 30 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• Roger Casement: The Black Diaries - with a study of his background, sexuality, and Irish political life (Second Edition)

• Living people
• Politicians from Belfast
• Members of the Order of the British Empire
• Gay men from Northern Ireland
• LGBTQ politicians from Northern Ireland
• Ulster Unionist Party politicians
• LGBTQ rights activists from Northern Ireland