Community Journalist
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Reprinted from Mu Society page: https://www.mysociety.org/
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Irish American philanthropist and billionaire Chuck Feeney is the key funder of themarriage equality drive in Ireland which will come to a head with a referendum on the right to marry for same sex couples on May 22.
Current polling points to a convincing victory for the same sex marriage side, but experts warn Irish referendums can be decided very late and voters swing wildly.
Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies have committed $475,000 to Marriage Equality Ltd the main group dealing specifically with the issue.
Feeney, the New Jersey-born billionaire, is giving away all of his money, an estimated $7.5 billion, through Atlantic.
A proud Irish American Feeney earmarked over $1 billion of that to be spent on educational, human rights and other projects in ireland. He also played a major role in bedding down the Irish peace process in Northern Ireland.
In addition to funding Marriage Equality, Atlantic has funded the main LGBT lobbying group, the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), to the tune of $2.5 million over the past few years.
Atlantic and Feeney identified equality in marriage as one of the key human rights issue they wished to focus on. Their funding helped pass the civil partnership act of 2010. On its website and in a video Atlantic cites other major advances including:
– Secured public referendum on civil marriage, which is scheduled for 2015
– Government creation of a Gender Recognition Advisory Group, the role of which is to make recommendations on how to proceed toward legal frameworks for gender recognition for transgender people
– Secured numerous significant changes in public policy and services to better reflect the needs of LGBT people in areas such as mental healthcare provision and bullying in the education system
– Increased capacities of the LGBT sector
Feeney, 82, a New Jersey native now resident in California, made his money as co-founder of DFS, the largest duty free empire in the world
The working class Irish kid from Elizabeth, NJ has surpassed the Rockefellers and Andrew Carnegie when it comes to charitable giving.
He invented “giving while living,” which is now all the rage. His example directly inspired Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to give it all away too.
One of his most important legacies is that he has convinced so many powerful people there are “no pockets in a shroud” and helping in the here and now is preferable to dribs and drabs over decades.
“Chuck has been an inspiration to both of us for many years and was living the Giving Pledge long before we launched this project,” Bill and Melinda Gates said recently.
“He’s a true innovator and example to anyone who seeks to make the world a better place,” Buffett said.
An independent survey on party policies and active records in supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer rights.
When you look up the definition of advertising, you are tol that it is ‘the activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services.’ Indeed Chron says, that companies use advertisements as part of a marketing program to increase sales of their products and services. Advertising plays a different role at different stages of the marketing process — helping to raise awareness of a product or service, generating leads for a sales force or selling directly. Companies with retail outlets use advertising to make consumers aware of product availability and increase sales through the outlets.
So why am I highlighting this, well Paddy Power launched a new advertising campaign based around the marriage equality vote. It states in it advert that the Yes Vote is 1/10 and the No Vote 5/1, which I believe are pretty accurate figures.;
However where I take ‘odds’ with them is the inclusion of two men in balaclavas kissing in its advert, the apparent inference being that ‘gay men’ are terrorists. I find this advert to be tasteless, irrelevant as apart from the betting figures it has no relevant to marriage equality. We consider the advert to be really unwise, and hope that Paddy Power will reconsider the advertising company it has used, and indeed the brief that it would have given them.
No to Paddy Power – Tasteless and Irrelevant
Stormont and Marriage Equality
Please see the following reports:
Reprinted from the Belfast Telegraph – 27 APRIL 2015
Equal Rights for gays
if only there was true equality in society.By Yarden Skop | Apr. 24, 2015 | 7:26 PM
Reprinted from Haaretz Website
Revelers wave rainbow flags during the annual gay pride parade in Tel Aviv June 13, 2014. Photo by Reuters
Reprinted Belfast Telegraph
The DUP’s South Down candidate in the Westminster election said he was stepping down to care for his wife Grace, who recently suffered two strokes and went through major heart surgery.
Mr Wells has been at the centre of a political storm over his stance on same-sex relationships, after he claimed children brought up by gay parents were more likely to be abused.
Then on Saturday, he sparked further uproar after it was claimed he had criticised a lesbian couple while canvassing in Rathfriland.
As well as widespread calls to resign, Mr Wells became the target of an online hate campaign, which he said had badly affected him and his family.
He said that he and his family had been attacked in “a deeply personal, nasty and in some cases threatening way. Some of the outbursts on social media have been particularly abusive and menacing in nature”.
The pressure on Mr Wells had been increasing in recent months as he tried to juggle one of the most testing portfolios in the Stormont government – health – with the demands of looking after his wife.
Many of the health unions will be taking industrial action around the time of the May 7 election.
Early this morning, the DUP veteran told the Belfast Telegraph he had expected his wife’s health would have shown greater improvement before now.
However, he said Grace (right)will require long-term specialised care.
Health Minister Jim Wells
“As she now faces further challenges I have come to the point where I am no longer able to continue my ministerial duties and give Grace the attention she deserves,” he said.
“I have been working long hours within the department by day whilst receiving a steady flow of updates from family at the hospital and then sitting at Grace’s bedside throughout the night.
“Even in circumstances where Grace was sufficiently recovered and discharged, she would then more than ever require substantial assistance with rehabilitation. Having been my chief supporter throughout my career my first duty will always be to look after Grace and my family. Consequently I met with Peter and requested to stand down from ministerial office.”
First Minister Peter Robinson said he respected his Health Minister’s decision and thanked him for his work around the Executive table.
“I believe he has made a great contribution and always offered positive support at an Executive level,” the DUP leader said.
“I would have wanted it to be otherwise but I respect Jim’s decision. However, he is right to put his family first and I will fully support his decision.”
Mrs Wells, who celebrated her 57th birthday in hospital with a cake and surrounded by her family, has been diagnosed with Platypnea Orthodoexia Syndrome – a condition so rare there are only 50 cases worldwide each year.
And yesterday, it was reported Mr Wells was recently diagnosed with narcolepsy, a rare disorder which can cause sufferers to fall asleep without warning. The political row started when Mr Wells linked gay relationships to child abuse at an election event in Downpatrick.
Mr Wells said a child brought up in a homosexual relationship was more likely to be abused and neglected, claiming that such marriages were less stable.
In a video clip, Mr Wells was heard to say that “the facts show you certainly don’t bring a child up in a homosexual relationship”.
The DUP minister later apologised, but his remarks caused uproar.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said “the mask has slipped”, accusing the DUP of being “truly backward-looking” in its views.
Mr Robinson said Mr Wells’ remarks were “not our view and nor will it ever be our view.”
Police confirmed they were investigating the comments. They also launched a probe after receiving three complaints about an incident involving Mr Wells and a lesbian couple on the campaign trail.
It was alleged that he had been critical about the couple’s lifestyle while out canvassing on Saturday.
It was reported that Mr Wells had twice tried to apologise, but the couple had refused to accept it.
The daughter of one of the women told the BBC: “Jim Wells was trying to get in, trying to see mum and her partner said, ‘No she’s not coming out to see you, she doesn’t want to see you’.
“He really wanted to try and get in to apologise to her, but she didn’t want it.
“He kept saying about lifestyle choices and how it was wrong, how his party didn’t believe in lifestyle choices.
“My mum’s partner actually told him she’d voted DUP all her life and he’s now lost her vote.”
