[attach id=370348 size="medium"]Tony Blair on the electronic cover of Gay Times. Photo: Gay Times/PA[/attach]

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been recognised as one of the top ‘gay icons’ of the past three decades, with figures such as Boy George, Sir Ian McKellen and Barbra Streisand.

He has been given the accolade by Gay Times to mark its 30th anniversary and has been featured as a cover star for an electronic version of the magazine.

Blair’s period as PM saw the lowering of the homosexual age of consent, bringing it into line with that for straight couples, as well as the introduction of civil partnerships.

It comes after he was given an award by GQ magazine earlier this month which declared him the philanthropist of the year.

Gay Times said of Blair’s contribution: “Whatever the realities of his philanthropy and the backlash to his GQ award, his status as an ambassador of gay rights is undeniable. An equal age of consent, the abolition of Section 28, legal recognition for trans people, civil partnerships, banning employers from sacking you because of who you love and making homophobia a hate crime – they were all on Blair’s watch.”

Blair featured on the cover to the magazine once before in March 1997, when he was still the leader of the opposition, although it was a stylised image rather than a posed shot. He also wrote for the magazine in 2005 in the run-up to the election of that year.

Responding to his ‘gay icon’ title, he said: “It’s something I’m very proud of. I consider it a significant part of my legacy. I remember Section 28, that was pretty nasty. It created a very ugly atmosphere in society – as I was growing up in politics, I disliked the hypocrisy where people had to conceal their own identity. And I saw the pain that they had in their own lives, because they couldn’t be who they were.”