ACOMSDave, Author at ACOMSDave

The 4Cs Model of Effective Communication – part II

18/06/2015 By ACOMSDave

Communications – The 4C’s

The First C: Comprehension

In my introduction to Effective Communication (part I), I referred to the 4C’s of effective communication, and how we need to be aware of these and how to use these 4C’s in our daily lives. Today I am going to clarify the first C – ‘Comprehension’. To comprehend means do you and your reader understand what has been written; is the main idea or point understood.

Lets look at a few examples of badly written communications:

Example 1.
- he appeal of the view that a work of art expresses nothing unless what it expresses can be put into words can be reduced by setting beside it another view, no less popular in the theory of art, that a work of art has no value if what it expresses can be put into words.

Example 2
- Ms. W!!!!Wazzup? girl tell me what we have to do for Friday bcuz I take 3 claeses and wrk 15 hrs/wk and I dont have time 2 git to a comupter to look n e thing up I rlly like your cls bcuz your funny well let me know cuz im a rlly gd stdt and need a A in youâ€™re cls.[no signature]
  – See more at: http://www.teachingcollegeenglish.com/2009/07/26/examples-of-poor-email/#sthash.mA8iKyQg.dpuf

Here are three tips for better comprehension:

Make the message clear and sharp
Repetition helps. Tell them what you’re going to tell them; next, tell them; and then tell them what you told them
Keep it simple – don’t go too deep

The old adage of KISS – Keep it Short and Simple

Caring for Family – Hospital A&E

18/06/2015 By ACOMSDave

Over the last year I have had to take my father into Belfast hospital A&E for assessment and admission following a pro-longed illness and time at home – this occurred on a number of occasions. The waiting times at A&E from time registered to time of admission into the ward have been 11-12 hours on each occasion – and according to the hospital staff, these were not busy, busy days!

The staff in the wards were excellent and they managed to get my father stabilised; however in the first instance whilst they resolved his physical symptoms they did not tactical underlying problem, and he was discharged after nearly three weeks to his home and myself. This discharge was pushed through due the urgent need to release beds for new patients, and when I arrived in the evening to pick my father up I found him sitting in his pyjamas, dressing gown and with a blanket wrapped around him beside the desk in the reception area; totally unsure of where he was and why he was being asked to sit there. I further had the indignity of having to dress him into his street clothes by using the toilet, as there was nothing else available. This whole situation further stressed him out, and when I did get him home he slipped into the illness and went straight back to where it had been before admission, and after another 4 weeks of both stress for my father and myself, he was again admitted to hospital, and this time was taken onto a ‘Ward for the Elderly’ where he was assessed as having dementia.

From this point forward the route was fairly well planned, and he ended up being discharged to a great nursing home ‘Ben Madigan’ in Newtownabbey. The staff here have proved to be wonderful and very supportive of both my dad and myself, for being in the midst of dementia is stressful for both the parties – the family member diagnosed and the rest of the family supporting.

Illness at any time is stressful, but when the patient is suffering from such a debilitating disease as dementia, then more care must be taken in hospitals and our NHS to ensure a quality of care above that of what we expect.

Ashers Bakery Owners to Appeal

29/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Editorial: The McArthur family, who having taken a contract decided that they couldn’t fulfil it due to their Christian beliefs, and then who were taken to court by the Equality Commission NI and had judgement made against them, is to appeal the judgement.

This is a perfectly natural move, and it is one that must be expected. The fees are not exorbitant (see Civil Appeals Office Fees from 4 April 2011) but the time for a case to heard can be lengthy, currently some cases are in excess of 9 months.

I do honestly believe that both of the two participants in this case would like to get on with their lives, but unfortunately the case has now got a political angle; in particular with some Northern Irish MLA’s and MP’s taking very right of centre positions against the LGBT community. Allied to which some church groups, in particular the Christian Institute which is funding the McArthur’s case for them.

I will also stress to everyone that the decision to go to the Appeal Courts at this time is controlled by the laws governing when you can submit your Notice to Appeal, and that it has ‘nothing’ to do with the ‘Yes’ vote on marriage equality which has just occurred in the Republic of Ireland.

The two are not linked in any way that I can see.

I am putting links to various news articles here for you to look at and for you to make your own judgement:

Bakery owners Daniel McArthur and his wife Amy arrive at court for the verdict. Press Eye – Belfast – Northern Ireland – 19th May 2015 Picture by Jonathan Porter / Press Eye

Authors praise rise in LGBT-themed kids’ books

28/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

The Bay City Reporter – by Chris Huqueriza –

Published 04/02/2015

by Chris Huqueriza

Author Maya Christina Gonzalez. Photo: Jeanine O’Connor

Twenty-five years ago, Leslea Newman published a book about a child and her two moms. A simple story about a little girl and her two mothers dropping her off to school. Titled Heather Has Two Mommies , with illustrations by Laura Cornell, the book received both acclaim and controversy.

Named a Lambda Literary Award finalist in 1990, the book would spark outrage two years later in North Carolina concerning its place in the public library. But most importantly, the book became a milestone in LGBT-themed books and a perspective many children need to see.

A new crop of LGBT-themed kids books has added to choices for young readers. Photo: Cynthia Laird

Last month, a new edition was released to coincide with the milestone anniversary.
“When writing books for young readers, it’s important to remember what it felt like to be a child,” said Newman, 59, who identifies as lesbian and has written over 60 books. “Tap back to your childhood and write to children. There was no book [at the time] to reflect my family.”
Since then, many books have been released with LGBT themes or authored by out writers.
Author Maya Christina Gonzalez wrote and illustrated a children’s book called Call Me Tree/Llamame Arbol. While the book, published last year, focuses on the main character’s relationship to nature, it is known for not using any particular gender pronouns and uses both Spanish and English in its text.
“I started off writing, then with painting. The freaks and geeks need to tell their stories and kids need to hear them and relate to them. The big major publishers won’t publish them,” said Gonzalez, 51, a queer Chicana who lives in San Francisco with her husband and has made multicultural books for the past 20 years. “Without using gender pronouns, it gives my character the opportunity to grow into themselves. There’s no reflection of that in the media.”
Other authors write books using their own identity to shape their work.
James LaCroce, Ph.D., has tackled issues of gay adoption and environmental issues in his books. In the latest, Chimpy Saves the Neighborhood , the plot revolves around a monkey named Chimpy and his best friend Matthew Chicken as well as his adopted parents, Juan and Benji. While touching upon environmental issues, the book also tackles LGBT hate crimes with Chimpy and Matthew Chicken building a robot because “their freedoms have been restricted.”
“I wanted the plot of this book to concern community violence against the LGBT community in San Francisco. Even given all of our advancements (including gay marriage) there still is violence in our community,” said LaCroce, 41, a gay man who’s married toBay Area Reporter assistant editor Matthew S. Bajko. “Particularly we still have violence against the most vulnerable of the LGBT community. When we begin to combat crime, we also look at how this restricts our freedoms.”
LaCroce’s book is a sequel to Chimpy Discovers His Family , which was published in 2010.
Author Gayle E. Pitman, Ph.D., wrote This Day In June revolving around the importance of LGBT Pride parades.
“It occurred to me that I’d never seen a children’s book about Pride before, and I thought that would be a fun, refreshing, and informative contribution to the LGBT children’s book genre,” said Pitman.
With illustrations by Kristyna Litten, the children’s book provides an enriched reading guide and a note to parents and caregivers as Pitman anchors every two-page spread with information about LGBT history and culture.
“So much of our history is being lost or maligned in some way,” added Pitman, 43, who identifies as pansexual and is a professor at Sacramento City College. “I was very surprised that almost nothing has been written about a guide for talking to children about sexual orientation and gender identity. When parents (especially if they’re straight) don’t know how to talk about these issues, they avoid them, and that’s dangerous.”
For many of the authors, having these issues open dialogue makes children more comfortable with themselves. Author Marcus Ewert published a story about a little boy named Bailey who dreams about making and wearing 10,000 dresses. Illustrated by Rex Ray and titled 10,000 Dresses , Bailey receives criticism from his family and friends about his choices.
“When I wrote the book in 2008, there were no books about trans kids and that needed to be addressed,” said Ewert, 44, a gay man who will be a keynote speaker on the American Library Association’s LGBT panel during its conference in San Francisco this summer. “At the time, people told me that no one in the world would publish [10,000 Dresses ]. It’s not true now as there are many books out there that are different. There is a mini publishing explosion of queer-themed books. It was the first book to be about a trans kid.”
For all five writers, they are pleased that there is now more diversity in LGBT children’s books, but Newman, for one, feels that movement has been slow.
“There’s some progress but it’s not enough,” said Newman. “We need more diverse books when it comes to issues of race, disability, religion, and gender. I hope to see a lot of progress in the future very quickly.”
As Newman’s iconic work celebrates 25 years, she is not alone in telling stories of the LGBT community. As she reflects back on her work, she imagines that little Heather and her mothers would be all grown up in a better world.
“The mothers would be in their early 50s in their respective careers as doctor and a carpenter,” Newman said. “Heather would be 30 years old and a feminist. She would be very happy and loves doing what she does.”

MLA Daithí McKay in gay rights appeal

28/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Ballymena Times – 07:20Wednesday 27 May 2015

Daithi McKay. (Editorial Image).

MLA Daithí McKay has welcomed the Republic’s marriage referendum result and called for the same rights for gay people to be extended North.

More than 62% voted for same-sex marriage – almost 38% were against it in last week’s referendum.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK which does not allow gay marriage after England, Wales and Scotland legalised same sex marriage last year.

Sinn Fein Assemblyman, Mr McKay, who was one of the sponsors of a recent debate in the Assembly on the issue, said: “This result was truly seismic and represents the lifting of discrimination against the gay community in the rest of the island of Ireland.

“The North now sticks out like a sore thumb as the only part of these islands, indeed, the only part of far Western Europe that does not permit marriage equality. That does not present a welcoming image to gay people at home or abroad.
“I do not see the sense in not giving gay couples the freedom to marry in Ballymena or Ballycastle in their own communities and with their own families when they have the right to do so in Dundalk and Donegal.
“Sinn Féin will continue to work towards equality for members of the LGBT community. I am delighted with the result of the referendum.
“I will be even more delighted when I see the same rights being extended to gay men and women here in North Antrim and the North as a whole,” said the Sinn Fein Assemblyman.

What Ireland’s Same-Sex Marriage Vote Means for Northern Ireland

28/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

EXPANDING THE LGBTQ CONVERSATION

MAY 27 2015 8:00 AM

By Liam Hoare

Par527896 — In December 2005, supporters of same-sex marriage stand in front of protesters vehemently opposed to “anything approaching gay marriage” outside Belfast City Hall as the first partnership ceremonies for U.K. same-sex couples are held.*

A month before the Irish people gave their wholehearted support to marriage equality, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted down same-sex marriage for the fourth time. It was embarrassing then, but after the referendum in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland’s status as the only nation in the British Isles willing to deny same-sex couples the right to marriage—an outpost of homophobic discrimination in Western Europe—is even more disgraceful and unjustifiable.

Northern Ireland’s ignoble status is, on one level, a product of the British political system. Marriage is a “devolved” issue, meaning that England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have their own laws on same-sex marriage. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which introduced marriage equality to England and Wales, did not apply to Northern Ireland, although the law did specify that same-sex marriages entered into in England and Wales are recognized as civil partnerships in Northern Ireland.

Yet the absence of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland is clearly also a matter of political unwillingness. This doesn’t come from the nationalist parties. Both Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party support it, as does the nonsectarian Alliance Party (although some Alliance and SDLP members were mysteriously missing during the recent vote on same-sex marriage). The problem in Northern Ireland is very much the Democratic Unionist Party.

Since it was established by Ian Paisley in 1971, the DUP has been associated with social conservatism and Protestant fundamentalism. Paisley and the DUP were behind the Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign, founded in 1977, which sought for years to prevent the decriminalization of homosexuality in Northern Ireland. The DUP opposed civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples at the time they were made law in 2005 (and still does), just as it opposes marriage equality today.

Homophobia is inherent to the DUP. Ian Paisley Jr., a member of the U.K. parliament, showed that the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree when he said he was “repulsed” by homosexuality. Iris Robinson, wife of Northern Ireland’s first minister,called homosexuality “disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked, and vile.” And Jim Wells recently resigned as the region’s health minister after saying, “You don’t bring a child up in a homosexual relationship. That … child is far more likely to be abused and neglected.”

Political homophobia is connected with religious power. Northern Irish people find themselves living under what has been called “essentially a theocratic regime,” due to the hold the Calvinist fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church has over the DUP. A recent study found that Free Presbyterianism “remains the largest faith among both DUP members and elected representatives.” As many as 30.5 percent of DUP members are Free Presbyterians, compared with a measly 0.6 percent of the Northern Irish population at large.

Since the 1970s, Northern Ireland’s LGBTQ activists have used the court system as one path to legal and social change. Indeed, it is because of the European Court of Human Rights that homosexuality was decriminalized in Northern Ireland. In the case of Dudgeon v the United Kingdom, the court ruled that the criminalization of male homosexual acts violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights with regard to the respect for private and family life. (The plaintiff, Jeff Dudgeon, had been persecuted by Northern Irish police throughout the 1970s on account of his homosexuality.)

This month, a court in Belfast ruled against Ashers Baking Co., a Christian-run bakery that refused service to a gay activist who wanted them to make a cake that included a slogan in support of same-sex marriage.* The judge determined that a business run for profit could not use freedom of religion to exempt itself from anti-discrimination law. Right now, there is a challenge underway to the Northern Irish government’s nonrecognition of same-sex marriages conducted in other parts of the United Kingdom.

Alongside the legal route, a mass demonstration organized by the Rainbow Project, Amnesty International, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is planned for June 13 in Belfast. “Northern Ireland is now the last bastion of discrimination against gay people in these islands,” Amnesty’s Northern Ireland Program Director Patrick Corrigan said. “People in Northern Ireland are sick of living in a discriminatory backwater for gay people.” Faced with a sclerotic political system, the courts and the streets are, for now, the gay community’s best hopes of overturning the status quo.

*Correction, May 27, 2015: This article originally misstated that Ashers Baking Co. refused service to a gay couple. It was gay activist Gareth Lee who ordered the cake. Also, due to a photo provider error, the caption on this photo originally misstated that the people in the photo were protesting same-sex marriage. The people standing in front of the banner are supporters of same-sex marriage.

Friendships Are Hard.

27/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Editorial: I have republished this article to show how being gay has a profound effect on your life, the choices that you make, and even the friends that you have. Being gay is hard, especially when you are at school, college or university and in Northern Ireland. Things have got better, but if some of our current crop of politicians have their way we will be going back to pre-Jef Dudgeon’s landmark European court case which forced the changes in the law to make us free to be a member of the LGBT community.

By most standards, I’ve won the queer lottery. I live in one of the first U.S. states to have legalized gay marriage; I have parents who went through only a minimal learning curve when I came out to them; I attend a high school that not only has a gay-straight alliance, but whose gay-straight alliance is active enough that the school newspaper often reports on its activities. I’m lucky. I know that.
And yet, here I am: seventeen years old, proudly queer, out to everyone I know online—but I’m still beyond terrified to tell anyone in school of my sexuality. Skipping over the inevitable self-torture (“If you can’t even come out here, how are you ever going to live out of the closet at all?”), I think it’s safe to blame my fears on friendship.
Here’s the thing: most of my friends are straight guys. And in high school—and possibly everywhere—being gay, bisexual, pansexual, or otherwise Not Straight while remaining close friends with straight people of the same gender is often really, really hard. And it’s not for any one reason, except maybe some combination of a) excessive hormones and b) people’s lack of exposure to actual same-gender relationships. But it’s always there—this unspoken agreement that being gay, while not explicitly bad, isweird, something meant for only one kind of person in a place that isn’t here.
Though within my social circle I only occasionally hear homophobic jokes made, the otherness of who I am slips into seemingly every conversation—like how discussing a recent Game of Thrones episode sends me into an internal panic when one person mentions how unnecessary and gross “those gay scenes” are, or how another has to preface his reluctance to talk to a girl he likes with “I’m not gay, but…,” or how people use the phrase “this is an accepting school” as a punch line rather than as a motto.
And, look, if I were to come out tomorrow—just leap up onto the dining hall table and shout “I DECLARE MY HOMOSEXUALITY!!!!!”*—I doubt I’d lose more than a single friend. I doubt many people would stop talking to me, because this is an accepting school, because I don’t have to fear for my safety, because I’m lucky. But it would be… different. Even at my school, most people really don’t understand m/m attraction. Mostly, I think this is for the obvious reason—when you tell a group of straight high school boys that you’re interested in guys, their minds automatically go to the whole sex part. Equally unhelpful is how some people instantly connect a same-gender friend being gay or bisexual with the fact that the friend could now be attracted to them, and then totally change how they act around him because of it.
That is what scares me: friends suddenly becoming hyperaware of everything I do and say for fear that I’m attracted to them.
I don’t think my feelings are irrational, either. I mean, there’s a reason why every single guy who has come out at my school is friends with almost all girls.
And it’d be so easy for me to say that my fears exist because my friends are bad, or because they’re shallow, or whatever it is, but that’s just not true. These kids, they are funny and cool and intelligent and self-aware and—yeah—they also really don’t have a problem with someone’s sexuality. I can name maybe one person within my social circle who I think would actually be upset. But there is still this general acknowledgement that straight is the strict default, and that queer people only exist “somewhere over there.”
To me, this has always been the hardest thing about being gay in high school—trying to grapple with the fact that even people as awesome as my friends might look at me differently after knowing this one part of who I am.
***
I tell you this because I want to illustrate the way in which being queer influences my everyday life. In large part because of my sexuality, I’m constantly questioning the value of my friendships, constantly feeling isolated by my own “otherness.”
After coming out, in itself such a huge and terrifying moment and one that we always need more YA books to cover, for me and for many other queer teens I’ve talked to, a hell of a lot of our struggles seem to revolve around friendships. But in queer YA, just like in straight YA, a lot of times complex looks at friendship get passed up in favor of more screen time for romantic relationships.
And including romance is great—one can never have too much kissing, especially of the queer variety, and I really hope the recent increase in queer romance books continues. But although romance is a big deal to a lot of us, it’s also not usually the most pressing issue. As much as I sometimes wish it were, my sexuality is not a nice little box that I can slap a ribbon on and push aside when I’m bored. Rather, it seeps into everything I do, and it makes something as basic as maintaining positive friendships with straight people of the same gender a constant struggle.
The YA category is famously riddled with the “Gay Best Friend” trope, where the straight hero has a queer friend/sidekick. In this trope, the hero usually affirms once or twice how totally cool with their friend’s sexuality or gender identity they are and then drops the subject in favor of, like, fighting bad guys and toppling regimes and stuff. And I think that’s good—that the main character is accepting, yeah, and also that the book has some form of queer representation.
But it’s also so rare for us to get the story from the point of view of that gay best friend—to hear about all of the times the straight hero said something homophobic to him without realizing, how many times the friend opened his mouth to point it out and then psyched himself out of it, and how often moments like these have made him feel different, and other, and alone.
And I look at that, that gay best friend trope, and I think: this is my life. The struggles that kid must go through every day—that’s what I deal with, too.
What I’d like to see—and what I hope to write—is more YA books along these lines, books that take hard looks at sexuality in the context of high school friendships and at the myriad of little internal conflicts that result from them.
Struggling with friendships is also in no way limited to a) males and b) sexuality. (I focused on these aspects only because they’re my personal experience.) It extends to all genders and to people all across the queer spectrum. From what I’ve heard, many, many LGBTQIA+ people have a hard time navigating their friendships, and I think it’s hugely important that we have books to guide us.
I mean, reading YA has already helped me immensely in understanding who I am. As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing queer YA can’t do.
***
*By the way, “I Declare My Homosexuality” is going to be the title of my tell-all memoir. Look out, publishing world.

—

John Hansen is a YA writer, a high school student, a blogger, and a former literary agent intern. You can follow him on Twitter at @ABoredAuthor.

Say ‘I do’ in Ireland: Tourism Ireland targets LGBT visitors with ‘dreamily romantic’ weddings

27/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Travel News – Pól Ó Conghaile PUBLISHED 25/05/2015 | 16:14

Saying yes to tourism

Senator Katherine Zappone and partner Ann Louise Gilligan celebrate the Yes vote after the referendum on same sex marriage. Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Getty Images

It may be September before same-sex marriage can take place in Ireland, but tourism chiefs have lost little time inviting LGBT couples to celebrate their weddings here.

Tourism Ireland unveiled its new campaign – “Ireland says I do” – just a day after the historic marriage referendum was carried.

On Saturday, Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce same sex marriage by popular vote, with 62.1pc of people voting Yes.

A day later, Tourism Ireland’s campaign began highlighting “dreamily romantic locations to tie the knot” and honeymoon on the island.

The campaign is being targeted at members of the LGBT community in nine overseas markets including Britain, the United States, Canada, the Nordic region, Australia, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

It focuses on Facebook, Ireland.com and a new video showcasing The Outing (below), the world’s first-ever LGBT matchmaking festival, an offshoot of the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival, which takes place in October.

“The Yes vote absolutely will have a positive impact on tourism,” Brian Finnegan, Editor of Gay Community News magazine, told Independent.ie Travel.

“In cities like San Francisco, Sydney or Berlin there is a sense of equality. People feel safe to be openly gay and express affection in public. The vote de-stigmatises… and that is bound to have a strong effect.”

Many gay couples from Ireland have travelled to Spain, Canada and New York City to get married, he adds.

“So why shouldn’t LGBT visitors come to Ireland for the same reason?”

Research unveiled at World Travel Market 2014 showed the annual spend on travel by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people exceeded USD$200 billion (€181bn) for the first time in 2014.

The fact that Ireland has become the first place in the world to introduce same sex marriage by popular vote could also be a reason in itself to visit, Finnegan adds.

“This sends a message that Ireland is a leader in terms of equality, respect and human dignity. The photos from the day of celebration portray Ireland as a wonderfully colourful and exciting country.

“Why shouldn’t that attract people to visit?”

Gay marriage vote is food for thought for unionists

27/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Younger voters are strongly in favour of gay marriage

News Letter – 10:11 Tuesday 26 May 2015

Is the Republic more British than Northern Ireland?

After last week’s overwhelming popular vote in favour of equal civil marriage in the Republic, Northern Ireland is now the only part of the British Isles in which it is illegal for gay people to marry.

Gay couples can marry in Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh and London – but not Belfast.

For unionists, this should at least give pause for thought. An enduring theme in unionist political thought has been – in the words of the Ulster Covenant of 1912 – “our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom”. It is why unionists opposed Home Rule: the fear that rights and liberties would be eroded in a Home Rule Parliament dominated by one narrow theological perspective.

That probably sounds a bit ironic now. Now it looks as if Northern Ireland, out of step with the British mainstream, is the last part of the British Isles in which a narrow theological agenda holds sway in politics.

This is not about excluding people of faith and faith communities from the public square. After all, the referendum campaign in the Republic included vibrant, lively debates within faith communities about equal civil marriage, with some faith leaders backing the Yes vote.
It is also obvious that very many people of faith voted Yes, and did so on the basis of their values of respecting the dignity of all people.
This gives us a sense of what this issue is actually about. It is about respect. It is about pluralism. It is about recognising that all citizens, irrespective of sexual orientation, have rights and liberties. It is about recognising that widening marriage to include gay and lesbian couples strengthens both marriage and our society.
And that is why there is equal civil marriage everywhere else in the United Kingdom – because central to British values has been a progressive widening of the scope of liberty, to strengthen the bonds that unite us as a society.
For political unionisim to opt out and oppose this, raises some difficult questions about how unionism sees its future. Pro-Union politics should be about promoting a vision of Northern Ireland fully sharing in the freedoms, opportunities and pluralism of the modern United Kingdom – not being a place apart, embarrassed about mainstream British values.
I know some unionist politicians vote against equal civil marriage on the assumption that it is the only politically ‘safe’ thing to do. I have two words in response to this – Danny Kinahan.
The Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim was one of only four unionist MLAs – I was one of them – to vote in favour of equal civil marriage in the recent Assembly debate. Danny did so in the midst of his campaign in South Antrim. And he won the Westminster seat. The lesson? Pro-Union voters don’t fear equal civil marriage.
Unionism needs to have a serious conversation about not the next 10 months, but about the next 10 years. Younger voters are strongly in favour of equal civil marriage. They see it as normal and routine everywhere else in the British Isles.
They cannot understand why if marriage is good for society, it can’t be legal for their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles who are gay.
And when it comes to deciding whether to vote or not, they will not be able to understand why unionism, which says it is serious about Northern Ireland being a full part of the United Kingdom, believes in equal citizenship for some, but not for all.
• John McCallister is an independent MLA for South Down

Old Testament Christianity in NI is seriously out of touch

27/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Humanist Brian McClinton

The Ashers Case was much more than about the icing on a cake.

It encompassed some of the basic values at the heart of liberal democracy.
Contrary to the view of evangelical Christians, the verdict, like the gay marriage referendum in the Republic, was a triumph for both freedom and equality.

Ashers argued that the message on the cake was against their freedom of conscience. But it was nothing of the kind. Freedom of belief is an empty concept if we deny our opponent the same freedom we demand for ourselves. As George Orwell put it, “if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.

Orwell knew that throughout history every tyranny in the world has demanded freedom of speech when it was a minority or in opposition, only to deny it to everyone else once it acquired power. Freedom of speech only for our own point of view is really a total contradiction of liberal democracy.

Is it not also being intolerant to wish to suppress an opinion you dislike? Is the bakery’s ‘freedom of conscience’ not really a euphemism for the freedom to be intolerant? And is it not also fundamentally unChristian in that the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would want them to do unto you is an alternative form of the principle of showing respect and tolerance for opposing views?
Fundamentalist Christianity and its associated political parties do not have a good record of supporting freedom of opinion here. During the period of Stormont rule they censored plays and films, and they were still doing it recently when they sought to ban a play in Newtownabbey and a painting in Banbridge. Freedom of conscience was in reality a euphemism for religious privilege.
Ashers also discriminated against the customer on grounds of sexual orientation and political opinion. Essentially, people owning businesses which provide public services cannot pick and choose their customers on these grounds. In this way the judgment struck a blow for both sexual and political equality.
In the Irish Republic 62 per cent of voters have just given their support for gay marriage. Like the Ashers ruling, this too enhances freedom and equality. It means that gay people who love each other can now choose if they wish to marry – a freedom which in no way inhibits a straight couple’s similar right. It also means that they will no longer be treated as second-class citizens and thus it entrenches their sexual equality.
In short, it establishes the Irish Republic as a truly pluralist democracy.
Northern Ireland is now the only part of the British Isles that still prohibits gay marriage, and the fact that a gay man had to bring a court case merely to establish his right to put a political message on a cake demonstrates how far it has to go.
The Archbishop of Dublin has stated that the Catholic Church needs a reality check. Clearly, all the main churches on the island need to examine the reasons why they seem to show less Christian tolerance and generosity of spirit than the mass of Irish people.
As for Northern Ireland, the question that has to be asked is whether the exclusive Old Testament conception of Christianity that has long dominated this society is seriously out of touch with the open and inclusive values of the modern world.
• Brian McClinton is a director of the Humanist Association of Northern Ireland