Scotland Has Gayest Parliament In The World, North Carolina Professor Says

A North Carolina professor who keeps track of LGBT politicians across the world says the Scottish Parliament is “the gayest in the world.”

Speaking to The New York Times, Andrew Reynolds of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that “Scotland has the gayest Parliament in the world.”

The Scottish Parliament has 10 members who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, totaling nearly 8 percent of the 129-member body.

Additionally, the leaders of three of Scotland's five major political parties and four ministers in the Scottish government are openly gay. Also gay is the one elected representative of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) in Scotland.

“In the span of a generation, Scotland has shed much of its traditional social conservatism and enthusiastically embraced diversity in sexuality, a process led and reinforced by a remarkable transformation in its political culture,” the Times reported.

“It's a big cultural shift,” said Kezia Dugdale, the leader of the Scottish Labour Party who came out in April and recently became engaged to her girlfriend. “When you say you're gay, people just shrug their shoulders. There is almost a feeling of 'so what?'”