Community Journalist
on 22 April 2015 , 8:23 pm
The SDLP supports the equal marriage campaign and we believe that civil marriage should be available to all regardless of sexual orientation.
Sinn Fein:
Yes. Sinn Féin actively campaign for marriage equality north and south. Sinn Féin have put for- ward motions for marriage equality before the As- sembly and local councils across Ireland. Represent- atives from the Marriage Equality Campaign gave a keynote address at Sinn Féin Ard Fheis 2015 along- side elected representatives from Sinn Féin LGBT.
Green Party:
Yes. We support freedom of religion and freedom from religion. We believe that faith groups should be able to decide for themselves if they wish to solemnise same-sex weddings and this will work similarly to the recognition of divorce in the UK, whereby individual religious organisations can choose whether or not to recognise it or not, but it is state-recognised. We also support humanist groups being allowed to conduct same-sex marriages.
Alliance Party:
Yes/ Civil marriage should be available to same-sex couples on the same basis as different-sex couples. We do not believe that religious institutions should be required to conduct such marriages if they do not wish to do so.
No. The DUP is opposed to marriage for same-sex couples and tabled a petition of concern ensuring the motion for Equality Marriage was blocked under the Northern Ireland Assembly’s cross- community voting rules. They blocked Marriage Equality motions a total of three times in 2013.
UUP:
No. Mike Nesbitt has stated that the party’s position on gay marriage was that it was a “matter of personal conscience”. Only one UUP MLA (Michael Copeland – Ed.) voted in favour of Equal Marriage. All others voted against or abstained.
TUV:
No. TUV supports “traditional family values” in its most recent manifesto and is outspokenly opposed to Equal Marriage. They also call for Civil Partnerships to be abolished.
Workers Party:
Yes. The Workers Party supports Marriage Equality.
UKIP:
No specific information. UKIP councillor David Silverster infamously claimed flooding in the UK in 2013 was God’s revenge for legalising gay marriage.
People Before Profit
Yes
Conservative Party of Northern Ireland:
No info available.
(N.B. ‘People Before Profit’ and the Ulster Unionist Party did not respond to the original survey questions. When we have them they will be uploaded and this post updated)
(Disclaimer: this survey was NOT conducted by Slugger O’Toole – we encourage any parties featured or not featured to contact us)
You can download the entire report here: LGBT NI Party Survey 2015 download
Reprinted from the Mirror – 16:54, 23 April 2015 By Federica Cocco
Photopress Belfast
The Tories have been jumping up and down about the possibility of the SNP ending up in a coalition with Labour, but they have been strangely silent on Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) potentially holding the balance of power.
But if the Tories win a sufficient number of seats, DUP MPs may be pivotal in forming government, as their leader Peter Robinson said yesterday.
A 12% chance the DUP will end up in government
That’s according to an analysis by the Financial Times.
They currently hold eight seats and are expected to win between eight and ten seats. Not a lot; but it’s more than UKIP are predicted to get (four or five). And given that the race is so close, the DUP could easily play kingmaker.
Conservative MP Mel Stride blew a straw in the wind when he wrote on Conservativehome.com: “an alliance of sorts [with the DUP] could offer those vital additional seats that might make all the difference to our prospects for continuing to govern.”
Last year David Cameron hosted “a lavish reception” in Downing Street in their honour.
So what will the DUP be bringing to the negotiating table?
Paul Givan – DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly – has drafted a private member’s bill which would allow business to deny services to any LGBT people on the grounds of religion.
It’s been put for consultation but the party hasn’t “laid” it yet, which means they are yet to submit it to be scheduled for discussion in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
If this becomes law, gay people in Northern Ireland could be refused simple, basic services like booking a table in a restaurant, renting a room for a night or even buying food.
The Rainbow Project said that what is known as the conscience clause would “create a licence to discriminate” against gay people.
And just in case you think this is just one man’s crusade, bear in mind the DUP leader Peter Robinson backs the bill.
We asked the DUP about the bill and they confirmed that “the party supports the broad proposal”.
A DUP spokesperson told us Givan’s consultation document was intended to “start a discussion” but no firm proposals are on the table yet.
In 1977 Rev. Ian Paisley – founder of the DUP – launched campaign “Save Ulster from Sodomy” to lobby against the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
His son Ian Paisley Jr has inherited his father’s values. In 2007 he said he was “repulsed” by homosexuals. On Question Time last year he defended the comments, adding “Christians are scared off about expressing this sort of view.”
In 2008 Unionist politician Iris Robinson was investigated for hate crime after saying homosexuality was disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked and vile. No charges were brought.
She also stated in Parliament that homosexuality is “viler” than child sex abuse. That was when she served as the party’s spokeswoman for health.
She believes gay people “can be turned around” through counselling and therapy.
In fact they actively thwart them.
Abortion is notoriously still illegal in Northern Ireland and unlike other parts of the UK it’s governed by criminal law, i.e. the Offences against the Person Act and the 1945 Criminal Justice Act.
It’s not allowed after rape or incest or in case of fatal foetus abnormality; and doctors can only terminate pregnancies to save a woman’s life or to avoid permanent and serious damage to her health.
When in 2012 a Marie Stopes abortion clinic opened in Belfast, the DUP voted in favour of closing it.
They sunk and still “oppose a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights” which would have extended access to the procedure to Northern Ireland but the DUP resolutely opposes it.
DUP/Flickr
In 2013 a total of 802 women came from Northern Ireland to terminate their pregnancies.
Paul Givan, once again.
The politician – who believes in creationism – put forward a motion in the Assembly calling for schools in Lisburn to teach alternatives to the theory of evolution.
In the last legislation, the DUP blocked the gay marriage bill from passing in Northern Ireland THREE TIMES. Civil partnerships are legal in Northern Ireland, but that law was passed before the DUP came into power.
Their 2011 manifesto pledged to “rigorously enforce legislation against begging.”
7. They hate the BBC
Their manifesto calls for a freeze in the BBC licence fee to be followed by either its significant reduction or abolition.
In 2011 a group of DUP MPs tabled a motion to discuss the death penalty at the House of Commons.
Who’s to say that giving them a place in government wouldn’t lend legitimacy to their policy ideas?
If UKIP also ends up being part of a Tory-lead coalition, the death penalty will most likely be brought up again in Parliament.
They have some policies in common with Nigel Farage’s party, most notably the fact that holding a referendum on European Union membership is a red line condition for any coalition agreement.
But they’re also dead set on increasing defence spending to 2% of GDP, and some senior members – such as the former Environment Minister – have called man-made climate change “a con”. He won’t have any trouble bonding with the likes of Roger Helmer or Paul Nuttall.
While UKIP is only expected to get between one and five seats, the DUP will definitely secure at least seven or eight.
Without the shadow of a doubt, in the event of a Tory-led Coalition or minority government David Cameron’s party will need the DUP’s votes to hold the government together.
The Tories have made no secret of this and have already begun wooing senior DUP politicians.
Any Government with the DUP will need to acquiesce to at least some of its deeply-held convictions.
Michael Fallon called the SNP’s manifesto “the most expensive ransom note in history”, but the DUP’s wishlist is no joke either.
Voters should be aware of what they’re in for.
[Sources: Pink News, Open Democracy, Conservative Home, FT]
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‘The Glass Closet by John Browne is a brave and fascinating book that shows how businesses can lead the way in promoting gay rights and why being yourself is best for business and for you.’
Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group
‘A courageous and salutary reminder that despite huge progress, we still have a long way to go to create the kind of tolerant and inclusive society of which business – as this book powerfully argues – must be a driving force.’
Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
Above: Screen grab from Kidnapped for Christ
Further reading:
Reprinted from Belfast Telegraph – 20 APRIL 2015
Justin McAleese
Reprinted from Irish Central –
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.
Reprinted from the Mirror website:
20:30, 18 April 2015 By Boudicca Fox-Leonard
Delegates paid £20 to attend a conference on ‘anti-gay’ therapy in London, where they heard a series of homophobic talks by professionally-accredited therapists
Homophobic: Dr Robert Gagnon and John Nightingale support conversion therapy
Shocking: The conference was held at the Emmanuel Centre in London
Scandal: Mike Davidson wanted to advertise his conversion services on London buses
Calls: James Holland who tried conversion counselling said such therapy should be banned