On the heels of Ken Mehlman's coming out earlier this week…

Conservative minister Crispin Blunt has separated from his wife of 20 years and issued a statement on his coming out:

"Crispin Blunt wishes to make it known that he has separated from his wife Victoria. He decided to come to terms with his homosexuality and explained the position to his family. The consequence is this separation.

"There is no third-party involvement but this is difficult for his immediate and wider family and he hopes for understanding and support for them. The family do not wish to make any further public comment and hope that their privacy will be respected as they deal with these difficult private issues."

Blunt's friends tell the Daily Mail that the politician, who is 50, has been undergoing a '30-year journey' wrestling with his sexuality

His voting history on gay rights is mixed. While he did vote in favor of adoption rights for gay couples, in 1998 he was opposed to removing the ban on gays in the miltary saying “Military ethos has been progressively undermined. Letting overt gays in is another stage in the process.” The UK lifted that ban one year later.Blunt himself served in the British Army for over 10 years.

Click here to see how he voted on other issues related to gay rights.

Some of his past viewpoints on homosexuality: "I believe it right that our law should discriminate in that limited way between homosexual and heterosexual practice…While I accept that, in law, we should tolerate people's choices to follow a homosexual life style and practice, I maintain that those are not equivalent to heterosexuality – nor should we pretend that they are."

Blunt's niece is actress Emily Blunt, who while promoting the movie Sunshine in which she played a lesbian told the Guardian she wanted "to become a gay icon."