Jeff Dudgeon
{{Short description|Northern Irish politician and activist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Jeffrey Dudgeon
|honorific-suffix = MBE
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|office = Member of
Belfast City Council
|term_start = 22 May 2014
|term_end = 6 May 2019
|predecessor = Bob Stoker
|successor = Sarah Bunting
|constituency = Balmoral
|birth_date = {{year of birth and age|1946|1}}{{cite web|title = Jeffrey Edward DUDGEON personal appointments|url = https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/OLEVZCugxmt20nPCVlClAowx6Jo/appointments|website = Companies House|access-date = 1 January 2025}}
|birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland
|death_date =
|death_place =
|restingplace =
|birthname =
|party = UUP (since 2011)
UKUP (1995–98)
Labour Integrationist (1979)
NILP (1970s)
|spouse =
|relations =
|children =
|residence = Windsor, Belfast
|alma_mater = Magee University College
Trinity College, Dublin
|occupation =
|profession = Historian
|signature =
|website =
}}
Jeffrey Edward Anthony Dudgeon MBE (born January 1946) 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.{{cite web |title=Belfast City Council results |url=http://www.u.tv/vote14/council.aspx?id=9 |website=UTV |access-date=June 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140526011233/http://www.u.tv/vote14/council.aspx?id=9 |archive-date=May 26, 2014}}{{cite web |title=Gay rights campaigner defends Ulster Unionist membership |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jun/04/gay-rights-campaigner-ulster-unionists |website=The Guardian |date=4 June 2013 |last=McDonald |first=Henry |access-date=June 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131222134840/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jun/04/gay-rights-campaigner-ulster-unionists |archive-date=December 22, 2013}}{{cite web |title=Belfast City Council results |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/man-who-helped-liberalise-laws-on-homosexuality-in-ni-loses-his-seat-38079119.html |website=Belfast Telegraph |date=6 May 2019 |access-date=June 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504190951/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/man-who-helped-liberalise-laws-on-homosexuality-in-ni-loses-his-seat-38079119.html |archive-date=May 4, 2019}}
Career
At the 1979 general election he stood as a "Labour Integrationist" candidate for Belfast South.{{cite news |title=UUP's Jeffrey Dudgeon: 'Police once raided my home and quizzed me for being gay' |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/uups-jeffrey-dudgeon-police-once-raided-my-home-and-quizzed-me-for-being-gay-30895565.html |work=Belfast Telegraph |access-date=8 September 2020 |issn=0307-1235 |language=en-GB}}
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.{{cite web |title=Three openly gay politicians on newly elected Belfast City Council |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/elections/three-gay-politicians-on-newly-elected-belfast-city-council-30304675.html |website=Belfast Telegraph |date=26 May 2014}} 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,{{cite web |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/belfast-telegraph/20180224/282574493561344 |title=My house came under attack, a breese block was thrown through the window |date=February 24, 2018 |via=PressReader |access-date=June 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207141849/https://www.pressreader.com/uk/belfast-telegraph/20180224/282574493561344 |archive-date=February 7, 2020}} 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".{{London Gazette |issue=60009 |date=31 December 2011 |pages=13–15 |supp=y}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.andrewmuir.net/2011/12/gay-rights-champion-jeff-dudgeon.html Article on MBE award] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930065228/http://www.andrewmuir.net/2011/12/gay-rights-champion-jeff-dudgeon.html |date=30 September 2020 }}
- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/095392873X Roger Casement: The Black Diaries - with a study of his background, sexuality, and Irish political life (Second Edition)]
- [https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyDudgeonMBE/]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudgeon, Jeff}}
Category:Politicians from Belfast
Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Gay politicians from Northern Ireland
Category:Ulster Unionist Party politicians