Sam Green (councillor)

Last updated

Councillor
Sam Green
Member of Durham City Council for Crossgate
In office
1972–1979
Personal details
Born
Samuel Burton Green

(1941-01-29)29 January 1941
Neasham, County Durham, England
Died9 August 1999(1999-08-09) (aged 58)
London, England
Political party Liberal

Sam Green was an openly gay psychiatric nurse and Liberal politician who was elected as a member of Durham City Council in 1972. [1] He has been described as the first openly gay councillor in England [2] and first openly gay candidate in an election in Britain. [3]

Contents

Political career

Green was aged 31 at the time of his election to the Crossgate seat, and had stood for election to the council twice before. During the campaign he openly identified himself as gay and as a member of the Gay Liberation Front, and in an interview with Gay News he reported that his sexuality had been extensively covered in the press and had attracted negative comments from opponents. He was elected to the seat, ousting an 18-year incumbent councillor. [1]

As one of his actions as a councillor, he asked for Gay News to be stocked in the city's libraries. [4]

Green retained his seat in the 1973 and 1976 local elections, but did not stand in the 1979 elections (when the seat was incorporated into a larger Crossgate and Framwelgate ward). [5] [6]

World in Action documentary

In 1973, as part of long-running series World in Action , ITV broadcast a 30-minute documentary about Green and his election to Durham council, entitled "Conversations with a Gay Liberal". [7] Council colleagues opposed production of the documentary, and banned filming in the Durham council chambers. [2]

The documentary was selected in 1974 to be preserved in the National Film Archive [8] and was re-released on DVD in 2014 as part of World in Action: Volume 4. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it was the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, holding seventeen seats, and broke through by achieving third place in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and polling third-highest regionally at the 2019 UK general election. The party won one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament, and one seat, North Down, in the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Murray (politician)</span> Canadian politician

Glen Ronald Murray is a Canadian politician and urban issues advocate who served as the 41st Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1998 to 2004, and was the first openly gay mayor of a large North American city. He subsequently moved to Toronto, Ontario, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre in 2010, serving until 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North West Cambridgeshire (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1997 onwards

North West Cambridgeshire is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2024 by Sam Carling of the Labour Party. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Williams (British politician)</span> British Liberal Democrat politician

Stephen Roy Williams is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West from the 2005 general election until his defeat by Labour Party candidate Thangam Debbonaire in 2015. As an MP, he served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government from 2013 to 2015.

Camden London Borough Council in London, England is elected every four years. Since the last boundary changes in 2022, 55 councillors have been elected from 20 wards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shayne Mallard</span> Australian politician

Maxwell Shayne Mallard is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2015 until 2023. He was formerly a councillor of the City of South Sydney from 2000 to 2004, and of the City of Sydney from 2004 to 2012.

This is a timeline of notable events in the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Canada. For a broad overview of LGBT history in Canada see LGBT history in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council election</span> Council election in Merseyside, England

The 2007 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council in Merseyside, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Notley-Smith</span> Australian politician

Bruce Neville Notley-Smith, is an Australian politician and former Mayor of the City of Randwick, and was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Coogee for the Liberal Party from 26 March 2011 to 23 March 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deon Swiggs</span> New Zealand activist and politician

Deon William Swiggs is a New Zealand politician serving as the Environment Canterbury Councillor representing the Christchurch West/Ōpuna Regional Constituency. He previously served as the Christchurch City Councillor representing the Central ward from 2016 to 2019. Prior to Swiggs being elected, he was most well known for his participation in Rebuild Christchurch, an organisation founded after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 Richmondshire District Council election</span> Regional election in England

The 2003 Richmondshire District Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Richmondshire District Council in North Yorkshire, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 1999. The council stayed under no overall control.

The 2017 election to Ceredigion County Council was held on 4 May 2017 when local elections took place across Wales. It was preceded by the 2012 election and followed by the 2022 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherry McKibben</span> Canadian politician

Sherry McKibben (1944–2014) was an Edmonton alderman who was elected in the 1994 by-election to replace Ward 4 alderman Judy Bethel, who was elected to the House of Commons and resigned her seat on council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Manchester City Council election</span> 2019 local election in England, UK

Elections to Manchester City Council were held on 2 May 2019, as part of the 2019 United Kingdom local elections. In 2018 Labour retained its majority of the council with 94 seats to the Liberal Democrats making up the opposition of 2, led by former MP John Leech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 City of York Council election</span> 2019 council election in York, England

Elections to City of York Council were held on 2 May 2019, as part of the United Kingdom local elections. The election resulted in substantial gains for the Liberal Democrats, who became the largest party, although no party surpassed the 24-seat majority threshold. The Conservatives suffered badly in this election, and lost 12 of the 14 seats they had won at the previous election. The Green Party held all their four seats, and surpassed the Conservatives in the popular vote. Labour gained two seats, although they failed to gain support in rural areas, where voters favoured the Liberal Democrats. On 14 May, The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party announced that they had agreed to run the council in a new 'progressive partnership' coalition, with Green Party leader Andy D'Agorne assuming the role of Deputy Leader of the Council while Liberal Democrat leader Keith Aspden succeeded Ian Gillies as Leader of the Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 City of Edinburgh Council election</span> City of Edinburgh Council election

Elections to the City of Edinburgh Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mal O'Hara</span> Northern Irish politician (born 1979)

Malachai O'Hara is a Northern Irish politician, activist and community worker who has been the leader of the Green Party Northern Ireland since August 2022, having previously served as deputy leader from 2019 to 2022. O'Hara was a Belfast City Councillor for the Castle electoral area from 2019, until 2023. In 2024, he was elected unopposed to Seanad Éireann, in a by-election to the Administrative Panel.

References

  1. 1 2 "Councillor Gay". Gay News. 1 October 1972.
  2. 1 2 "Gay Political Storms". Gay News. 7 March 1973. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  3. ↑ Greaves, Bernard (September 1983). "Letters" (PDF). Gay East Midlands.
  4. ↑ "Sam Faces Spite On Council". Gay News. 24 January 1972.
  5. ↑ Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael. Durham City Council Election Results 1973-2007 (PDF). Plymouth University.
  6. ↑ Report No. 227: Proposals for the Future Electoral Arrangements for the City of Durham (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for England. July 1976.
  7. ↑ "Conversations with a Gay Liberal". IMDB. 5 March 1973. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  8. ↑ Annual Report and Accounts 1973-74 (PDF). Independent Broadcasting Authority. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  9. ↑ "World in Action: Volume 4". British Universities Film & Video Council. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.