Two newly-elected LGBT councillors will make up Belfast City Council in Northern Ireland.

Jeff Dudgeon and Julie Ann Corr will join returning councillor Mary Ellen Campbell on the city council; between the three of them they will represent the Ulster Unionist Party, the Progressive Unionist Party and Sinn Fein respectively.

Jeff Dudgeon, who represents the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), is openly gay and credited with fighting for homosexuality to be decriminalized in Northern Ireland.

Dudgeon complained to the European Commission of Human Rights after being interrogated about his sexuality, upon which the commission agreed Northern Ireland was in violation of human rights for making gay sex a crime.

As a result of this, homosexuality was decriminalized in Northern Ireland in 1982.

In 2012, Dudgeon was awarded an MBE for his work in the LGBT community in Northern Ireland.

Dudgeon told the Belfast Telegraph he does not know his fellow LGBT councillors but is looking forward to see if they can work together on particular issues.

Joining him is Julie Ann Corr, who represents the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and is openly lesbian.

‘Thank you for all of your warm messages of support, I am delighted & looking forward to taking a seat at BCC representing W/C communities,’ she tweeted.

Corr, who represents Oldpark in north Belfast, also said she does not want her sexuality to be the focus of her politics.

‘Whilst I am open about my sexuality, I will not let it define me or allow anyone to fit me into a neat category,’ she said.

Lesbian councillor Mary Ellen Campbell, of Sinn Fein, believes the newly-elected councillors are a sign of changing attitudes in Northern Ireland.

‘Aren’t the electorate amazing… Imagine no longer the only gay in the village #equality,’ she tweeted.

Twitter user @gaygael also thought the electorates deserved to be congratulated.

‘Two lgb women and a gay man on bcc! Times are a changing,’ they wrote.

