Dennis Laws, a minister in the new UK Government, has been forced to resign because he claimed expenses for rent paid to his gay partner. He didn't want his gayness to be known, but has now been outed in the most unpleasant way. We all know that the decision to come out can be agonising, and he made his, to stay in the closet. But, as a politician, his gay relationship was bound to come out sooner or later.

Laws broke the law (no pun intended) by claiming expenses in this way, but I think many of us would have done the same.

My sympathy goes to Dennis and his partner... and to the Con/Lib Dem Government, which has lost one of its brightest stars.

His name is David Laws, and he is my local MP.

I think he should have come clean about his sexuality earlier, that would never have been a problem. The expense claims are a different matter, and he duly resigned.

Sorry to make a mistake on the name. It's not always so easy to come out... I think many of us have agonised before we did. I was lucky in a way; when I met my life partner, he was so obvious that there was no point in trying to hide it any more.

Total paranoia he was not forced to resgn he resgined because he was caught breaking the rules on parlimentary expenses nothing to do with him being gay

A series of posts have been deleted. Posters should be aware of local subforum guidelines, which may have rules above and beyond the general forum rules. One of the subforum rules in the Gay Subforum is that topics not related to Thailand are permitted (just as educational topics are allowed in the teaching subforum and women's issues are allowed in the Ladies' Subforum). It is considered trolling to post simply to ask if the topic should be Thai-related; therefore a warning has been issued.

Gay or not doesn't matter here, he stole taxpayers money, that is what it is about.

Breaking the law as a minister and getting caught gets no sympathy from me, even if it is 'what everyone does'. If he wanted to remain in the closet, he should have been especially careful not to involve his relationship in his illegal activity. It's regrettable that a gay voice has been removed from a major position of trust, or that a person has lost his privacy, but it is his own fault- he violated the trust.

... this guy had to fall on his sword for the sake of the country, think of the field day the labour party would have with this guy in charge of controlling government spending.

A post violating forum rules has been removed and a severe penalty issued. This isn't the subforum to play around in.

Another post violating forum rules has had to be removed. As this thread has become too much trouble and posters have not been able to stay on topic, it is now closed. If anyone feels further gay-related topical information has come up, PM a mod for us to consider re-opening the thread.