and the article's over-egging it in hailing Davidson as "a political pioneer" (never mind a prospective future First Minister!).

In Scotland, we have Scottish Green Party co-convener Patrick Harvie, who's bisexual, Scottish Tory leader Davidson, who's been out as a lesbian for a while since she took over the post, ex-Scottish Labour Kezia Dugdale, whose coming out as lesbian while in office was the least of her worries (and to be honest, not much of a surprise; her current partner is Jenny Gilruth, an SNP MSP, which has raised more eyebrows), and a Scottish Secretary of State, David Mundell, who came out as gay a couple of years ago while in office (he's a UK government appointee, so maybe bears out the point a little about progress in the UK as a whole, though because at the time he came out he was Scotland's sole Tory MP, maybe not by that much as the range of choices open to the Tories at Westminster wasn't wide!). Quite a high proportion of our prominent Scottish MSPs and MPs are also out as gay, and got elected with that as public knowledge.

It says more about the hard-fought progressive political and social environment we've built up in Scotland over the past couple of decades or so - at times against dogged opposition from the likes of the Tories, though all parties have had to undergo a transformation since the days of anguish over Clause 28 in the UK (enacted via Section 2A in Scotland) - and less about Davidson as a pioneer. I'm glad we have an environment where news like this isn't a big deal.

The history of progress on LGBT rights in Scotland is a long one, starting from shameful sanctions in earlier years, as in the rest of the UK, and can be traced through articles such as this one from 2000 - Section 28: Your questions answered - and the fact that in 2015 and 2016, "In both 2015 and 2016 Scotland was recognised as the best country in Europe for LGBTI legal equality" (Wikipedia - "LGBT rights in Scotland").