Jeff Dudgeon

Jeffrey Edward Anthony Dudgeon MBE is a Northern Irish politician, historian and gay political activist. A member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Dudgeon was a Belfast City Councillor for the Balmoral DEA from 2014 to 2019.

Career
At the 1979 general election he stood as a "Labour Integrationist" candidate for Belfast South.

He is best known for bringing the case Dudgeon v United Kingdom to the European Court of Human Rights; this successfully challenged Northern Ireland's laws criminalising consensual sexual acts between men in private.

Dudgeon was elected onto Belfast City Council at the 2014 local elections as the UUP representative for Balmoral. During the 2014 to 2019 council term, he was one of three openly gay politicians elected to the City Council, along with Mary Ellen Campbell of Sinn Féin and Julie-Anne Corr of the Progressive Unionist Party; at the 2019 local government election, all three lost their seats. He has also published a study of Roger Casement's Black Diaries, which accepted them as genuine.

At the 2023 Northern Ireland local elections, Dudgeon stood as the UUP candidate in the Botanic DEA on Belfast City Council, but was unsuccessful.

Personal life
He is originally from East Belfast, and attended Campbell College then Magee University College and Trinity College, Dublin. He has a long-term partner.

Honours
As part of the 2012 New Year Honours, Dudgeon was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in Northern Ireland".