Half of UK's Young Adults Not '100 Percent Heterosexual'

19/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Originally published on Advocate.com August 18 2015 9:32 AM ET
A stunning survey by YouGov UK has found that 23 percent of British people surveyed do not consider themselves exclusively heterosexual. As many as 49 percent of adults aged 18-24 described themselves as “not 100 percent heterosexual,” indicating bisexuality is more common among younger adults, who enjoy more sexual fluidity.
The survey used a modified Kinsey scale to measure sexuality by asking participants to place themselves on a range between “exclusively heterosexual” and “exclusively homosexual.” Kinsey’s groundbreaking study of human sexuality found that 10 percent of males were “more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55.” The British survey found that four percent of total respondents identified as “completely homosexual.”
Younger adults tend to be more willing to experiment with members of the same-sex than older adults, according to the survey. Six percent of young adults classified themselves as completely homosexual, but 43 percent identified as neither exclusively homosexual or heterosexual.
While most of respondents still identified as heterosexual or homosexual, the scale numbered between zero (completely heterosexual) and six (completely homosexual) allows for subjects to be more specific about their sexuality and indicate that they have had experiences or attractions outside of their declared identity.
“Clearly, these figures are not measures of active bisexuality – overall, 89 percent of the population describes themselves as heterosexual – but putting yourself at level one allows for the possibility of homosexual feelings and experiences,” researchers wrote. “More than anything, it indicates an increasingly open minded approach to sexuality.”
“In a further set of questions asking if respondents could conceivably be attracted to, have sex with or have a relationship with someone of the same sex (if the right person came along at the right time), level ones were at least 35 percent more likely to say they could than level zeroes.”
According to the research, the closer heterosexual identified respondents rated themselves closer to a three (completely bisexual), the chance that they have had a sexual experience with a member of the opposite sex increased. The survey found 23 percent of those at level one have had a sexual encounter with a member of the opposite sex, while 52 percent of people at level two have had such an experience.
Read the full results of the survey here.

Contributor:

Bil Browning

Source URL: http://www.advocate.com/bisexuality/2015/08/18/study-half-british-young-adults-not-100-percent-heterosexual

Links:
[1] http://www.advocate.com/
[2] https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/16/half-young-not-heterosexual/
[3] https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/7zv13z8mfn/YG-Archive-150813-%20Sexuality.pdf
[4] http://www.advocate.com/bisexuality
[5] http://www.advocate.com/breaking
[6] http://www.advocate.com/united-kingdom
[7] http://www.advocate.com/world
[8] http://www.advocate.com/health/love-and-sex

School to offer LGBT History course

19/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Ruth Asawa School to offer course on LGBT History

A San Francisco public high school is ready to launch an LGBT history class in the new school year.
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts is going to be one of the few public schools across America that will offer this class.
The curriculum will include topics such as the gay rights movement, AIDS crisis, and the Stonewall Riots.
Leader of the course Lyndsey Schlax said, “This is history. This is an experience that happened. How can we not teach history?”
The class will also be tailored to include San Francisco’s own gay heritage including how World War 2 help to set up the gay scene in the city.
“It has to do with how the war ended – people ending up in San Francisco after. People finding each other. People not necessarily wanting to return to where they came from.”
The curriculum was supposed to launch back in 2010 but when the recession hit the school budget took it hard.
However back on track the funding has returned and Ms. Schlax has been given the money for 40 audio and video players making her course multimedia.
This means it will be able to focus on how Disney villain’s can often have speech patterns associated with gay men, leading on to a discussion on the use of gay stereotypes in Hollywood.
A member of the school board, Sandra Fewer, has discussed how she wants schemes and classes such as this set up in every school district and not to confined to art schools.
“As the mother of a gay child, I’m very sensitive to the issues of our LGBT youth,” she said. The course offers “a deeper understanding. It separates fact from fiction.”
Representatives of the school have clearly stated that they are not teaching “gay sex 101” There is nothing do with sex, another board member stated: “People always think it’s about sex. It’s not about sex.”
Words Bethany Mosettig, @bethanymosettig

Editorial: Will this ever happen in Northern Ireland schools?

PRIDE IN NEWRY FESTIVAL

19/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

On Thursday 20^th August. there will be an Information and Health Fair in the NRC Centre, 28a Monaghan Street, Newry.
From 3:00pm to 7:00pm there will be a range of organisations present to give information and advice on things like, healthy eating, quitting smoking, positive mental health, cancer awareness and many more.

See posters below:
Festival events (1) Festival events

Domestic violence in LGBT community hidden despite high rates

19/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

there is a lack of awareness and willingness to address domestic violence, researchers say (BSIP/UIG via Getty Images)

Domestic violence remains an “invisible” issue in the LGBT community, with many victims feeling too ashamed to make a complaint or seek support, a report in Australia has found.

Despite research that shows that one-third of people in a same-sex relationship suffer from domestic abuse, there is a lack of awareness and willingness to address the problem, researchers say.
“I think it is often more difficult to recognise domestic violence or family violence from the perspective of the victim or indeed the offender, because the language has been extensively relating only to heterosexual couples or in fact families that are all heterosexual,” Philomena Horsley – of Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria – said.
“Because [there’s] also such an invisible issue within the community, there’s a high level of shame associated with it.
“So in the anecdotes and the stories that we hear, it’s very common for friends not to be aware at all of same-sex violence that is occurring.”
Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria’s Anna Brown said there were “obviously unique circumstances” in LGBT relationships, such as threats to “out” a partner to their family or workplace as a means of control.
“They will tell people they will lose custody of a child, using homophobia, transphobia as a tool of control, so they will tell their partner you will be unable to access a police or justice service or other support service because the system is homophobic or transphobic.”
Other threats can include victims being told they “deserved” the abuse because they are LGBT, threatening to disclose a person’s HIV status or withhold medical treatment, reports The Age.
It can also include deliberate misgendering a person.
Dr Horsley said trans people were at even greater risk, with recent research showing that they suffer higher rates of violence than gay and lesbian people.
She added that because so many LGBT people experienced regualar violence, prejudice and discrimination outside of their relationships, it often became harder for both victims and perpetrators to identity.
“It’s almost less distinguishable for many people,” Dr Horsley said.
“We know that LGBTI people have higher rates of depression and anxiety and mental illness overall, combined with the social isolation mean that the experience of violence just becomes part of a spectrum of experiences.”
The report comes after results of a survey in the UK found disturbingly high levels of depression, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts among gay men.
The survey found that 24% of gay men admitted to trying to kill themselves, while 54% admitted to having suicidal thoughts. A further 70% said low self-esteem was the main reason for their depression and suicidal thoughts.
Other factors included relationship issues (56%), isolation (53%), not feeling attractive (49%).
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and need to talk to someone, visit samaritans.org or call 08457 90 90 90

MLA’s U-turn on same sex marriage views

19/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Trevor Lunn Alliance Party conference 2011. Picture by Bernie Brown

There has been a mixed reaction to the announcement by Lagan Valley MLA Trevor Lunn that he has changed his view on same sex marriage.

Mr Lunn had previously voiced his opposition to same sex marriage. However, he has said that a number of things had now changed his mind on the issue, including the recent referendum in the Republic.

“This issue has been contentious between myself and my party for many years, and also between me and the LGBT community,” said Mr Lunn. “My attitude has been a source of irritation, even though both groups accept, I hope, that I’m not anti-gay.
“I supported civil partnerships and the rights of LGBT people, but the question of marriage has been a step too far for me. In recent months, we have had the referendum in the Republic and a very impressive rally here in support of the proposal.

“I’m in no doubt that a test of public opinion in Northern Ireland would produce a close result at least, and probably a decisive vote in favour. I also attended a meeting of the Northern Ireland branch of the British Psychological Society, at which the problems affecting LGBT people in terms of equality were discussed. We cannot ignore their conclusions.
“I feel that the time is right for me to reconsider my position, and I do not feel that Northern Ireland should continue to be the only part of these islands where same-sex marriage on a civil basis should not be allowed.
“I will therefore support the proposal when it inevitably comes before the Assembly during the next term.”
Lisburn Alliance Councillor, Alderman Stephen Martin, welcomed Mr Lunn’s decision. “‘Equal marriage should be a no-brainer. We have many people living in Lisburn and right across Northern Ireland who should have the same right to marry as others in society.

Jewish-LGBT history exhibition launched

19/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

A Leeds shul has hosted the launch of the Rainbow Jews exhibition, which documents and showcases Jewish-LGBT history in the UK.
Sinai Reform Synagogue held a shabbat weekend, which included a service on Friday night and Saturday morning, before the display was launched.
The services were led by Sinai’s assistant rabbi, Esther Hugenholtz, with Friday’s service followed by a supper at the shul.
Surat Shaan Rathgeber Knan, founder and manager of Rainbow Jews and of his latest project Twilight People, spoke about his journey coming to terms with the relationship between his sexuality and his Judaism.

The Saturday shabbat service included alternative texts and liturgy which embraced LGBT issues, which event organiser Nicolle Levine called “thoughtful, spiritual, sensitive and inclusive”. She added: “this is exactly what we were aiming for in bringing the exhibition to Sinai.”
The service was attended by members of the Jewish and non-Jewish LGBT community from across Yorkshire.
The launch of the exhibition took place after the Shabbat service, and saw speaking guests including Leeds’ Lord Mayor and Sinai member Judith Chapman, Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton and Pudsey Horsforth and Aireborough MP Stuart Andrew.
The exhibition is run by Rainbow Jews, which is a lottery funded oral history project that records and showcases Jewish LGBT history in the UK from 1950-present.
An oral history selection can be heard on the Rainbow Jews website: www.rainbowjews.com
Sinai’s Senior Rabbi, Rabbi Morris also spoke about the Jerusalem Pride attack.
On Sunday morning, Nicolle Levine and Sinai member Matt Thornfield were guests on Radio Leeds talking about the event. They spoke about significant parts of the exhibition, including a testimony of a Jewish woman who aged 90, came out as lesbian.
For more information, contact sanctuary@sinaisynagogue.org.uk.
The event took place between 31 July and 2 August.

UK Government rejects changes that could support LGBT children

19/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

No modern sex and relationship education

Today the UK Government failed to accept any of the recommendations made by the Education Select Committee on how to improve personal, social, health and economic education.
PSHE isn’t a complicated process. It teaches young people about sex and relationships, gender identity, LGBT issues and mental health and emotional wellbeing. All pretty essential topics we think you’ll agree.
The committee wanted “PSHE to be made compulsory in all schools and that compulsory guidance for schools – which currently dates back to 2000 – be updated ensuring PSHE is inclusive of same-sex relationships – the Government’s response failed to accept this.”
Deborah Gold, Chief Executive, NAT (National AIDS Trust), says: “The Government’s refusal to give all young people in this country an equal access to information is creating a two-tier education system. Depending which school you happen to go to, you may or may not have access to good sex and relationships education and you may or may not learn how to protect yourself from getting HIV in real-life situations– this is a violation of the human rights of many young people.
“One in five people in the UK don’t know you can get HIV from sex without a condom. Our research found three-quarters of gay and bisexual young men don’t receive any information about same-sex relationships at school, at the same time new HIV diagnosis amongst this group have doubled over the past ten years. Sex education in the UK is not working and the Select Committee has reported it is getting worse. Only by making PSHE and SRE statutory and relevant to all young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, will we start to address the shockingly low levels of understanding about HIV and see the static numbers of new HIV infections go down.”
You can read the full report of recommendations from the Education Select Committee here. And we will of course keep you updated as this story develops.
Image Harry Lawford Via Flikr
Words Josh Withey, @josh_withey

Lawsuit Filed Against Walmart For Refusing Health Care Coverage For Same-Sex Spouses

16/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Editorial: In July 1999, Asda became a subsidiary of the American retail company Walmart, and today is the United Kingdom’s second-largest chain by market share.

by: Keith Brekhus

Tuesday, July, 14th, 2015, 9:05 pm

A class action lawsuit against Walmart was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday morning. The lawsuit alleges that, prior to 2014, the nation’s largest retailer violated gender discrimination laws by denying health insurance benefits to the spouses of legally married gay employees.

The suit was filed on behalf of Jacqueline Cote, an office manager at a Swansea, Massachusetts store. Cote’s wife, Diana Smithson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012, but she was denied health care coverage, because Walmart refused to provide coverage for spouses in same-sex marriages. As a result, the couple has incurred over 150,000 dollars in medical debt, while Smithson continues to fight her cancer.

The class action lawsuit was filed by two advocacy groups – Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (WLC). Peter Romer-Friedman, WLC’s Deputy Director of Litigation, explained the rationale for the lawsuit, arguing:

Walmart broke federal law when it denied vital benefits to workers who have same-sex spouses. In an era where marriage equality is supported by the American people and the U.S. Supreme Court, it is hard to believe that Walmart would treat its LGBTQ workers so poorly. Because Walmart’s discrimination harmed working families across the country, we are filing a national class action to ensure that Walmart finally provides these families the equal benefits federal law guarantees.

Walmart revised their policy to begin covering same-sex spouses on January 1, 2014. However, Cote and Smithson were legally married in Massachusetts in 2004. On January 29, 2014, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) issued a determination that Walmart’s refusal to provide health care coverage to Jackie’s wife constituted unlawful sex discrimination.

According to Reuters, a Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment, beyond stating that the company’s policy of denying benefits coverage to same-sex spouses before the 2014 change was legal. Whether the policy was legal will now be up to the courts to decide.

However, legal or not, the nation’s largest retailer chose to deny coverage to a woman with cancer, simply because she was in a same-sex rather than an opposite-sex marriage. That policy was discriminatory. While Walmart has already begun to change the way they treat same-sex spouses, they should also make amends and compensate those couples they discriminated against prior to 2014.

The Problem is Not Gays but the Religious Right’s Culture of Repression

15/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson more from Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Thursday, July, 9th, 2015, 7:57 am

Bart Barber, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, wrote in Canon and Culture yesterday that Obergfell v Hodges has presented “followers of Christ” with “a changed universe of possibilities.”
He claims that even a “if some modern-day triumvirate rivaling Whitefield, Edwards, and Wesley were to bring upon us a Third Great Awakening, it still would be too late to prevent this nation’s social experimentation by way of the removal of sexual taboos.”
Barber admits he is not a lawyer. He is also, despite his claims to the contrary, not a historian. Like most on the Religious Right, he insists on some monolithic and unchanging reality with regards gender roles that are not, in fact, present in the historical record, even among Christians (even King David says sleeping with his friend Nathan is “better than sleeping with a woman.”)
Like others arguing against Marriage Equality, he makes the Bible into one long anti-gay diatribe, when it is nothing of the sort, and was not recognized as such for most of Christian history.
Barber goes on to claim that “the advocates for the sexual revolution are taking us back to first-century Rome.” But here Barber is appealing to a past that exists only in the imagination:
Socially, the advocates for the sexual revolution are quickly taking us back to first-century Rome. There and then we knew we were a minority, which we’ve always been whether we recognized it or not. Our church rolls contain many unregenerate members. That situation is about to change. A red-hot commitment to Christ is about to become the only reason why anyone would join one of our churches. We are becoming the ultimate “alternative lifestyle,” and the aftermath of today’s decision could be freeing for us if we will allow it to be.
There are a couple of important things to understand about first-century Rome. Barber, the non-historian wants a dichotomy that is not there. Running on the fumes of what have become Hollywood stereotypes, he wants a decadent, moribund Paganism and absence of morality to stand in stark contrast to the vibrant and revolutionizing opposition to moral relativism represented by Christianity.
His message is clear: We have fallen back into the moral abyss from which Christianity emerged.
On the contrary, as Jonathan Hirsch has pointed out, “The ruling class of Rome was, contrary to twenty centuries of Christian moral censure, rather fussy and even puritanical on the subject of sex, especially in outward appearances.”[1]
And Ray Laurence, writing of Roman sexuality, laments that “It is something of a disappointment to discover that the Romans did not have orgies.”[2] As Laurence goes on to explain, “there is no evidence for them. They are yet another example of the fevered imagination of the modern world, which attempts to sexualize all other cultures past and present.”
“Sexuality,” says Lynn LiDonnici, “as we use the term does not appear to have concerned people in the ancient Mediterranean; specific acts drew more attention than choices about lifestyle or sexual identities in the modern sense of identification.” The problem, as she sees it, is our modern inability to think outside of our own context. She stresses the need to “understand symbols from antiquity on their own terms.”
If we separate our own tendency to eroticize all female categories from the categories of antiquity…this…may hinder the understanding of Greco-Roman people on their own terms. It is possible that the tendency to extend erotic category judgments to the art of antiquity makes it difficult for us to perceive a figure who is both unsexualized and at the same time fully gendered.[3]
In fact, as Robert L. Wilken, who actually bothers to examine the social structures and contexts of the first century, points out, “A strong current of libertinism, offensive to the sensibilities of the middle- and upper-class Romans, runs through early Christianity. It is the Romans, not the Christians, who are the puritans.”[4]
This is contrary to what modern-day Christians are brought up to believe, and Wayne Meeks echoes LiDonnici, arguing that, “we cannot claim to understand the morality of a group until we can describe the world of meaning and of relationships, special to that group in its own time and place, with which behavior is evaluated.”[5]
Insisting that Christianity today is like Christianity in the first century, is to fail to make that effort. Christians today move in a different context entirely. When Meeks points out that, “it is Plato as read by Philo and Plutarch…whom we must understand” and not as read by some modern scholar,[6] the same must necessarily be true of the New Testament.
The crux of the matter and this is something ignored by Barber and others is that in the first century, the New Testament did not exist. There were collections of writings and letters, different collections in different areas, giving rise to a multitude of Christianity’s and understandings. There was no monolithic Christianity any more than there was a monolithic Paganism for it to stand in opposition to.
In fact, Christian morality, supposedly so new and revolutionary, was informed by that of the Pagan world we are told it opposed.
The idea of philanthropia was well known by Pagan society – and long before Christianity appeared, and even the idea of loving one’s enemies is well attested in Pagan writings. Diogenes Laertius (8.23) mentions Pythagoras on this score and it is found in Seneca too (De vita beata 20.5). John Whittaker’s findings are impossible to argue with: “We have no choice but to conclude that the pertinent conception was deeply entrenched in the popular morality of the ancient world.”
Whittaker goes on to say, “We may conclude that pagan critics had not been slow to note that the Christian ideal of morality, lofty though it might be, was well anchored in the Hellenistic tradition.” Indeed, “in the Iambi ad Seleucum of Amphilochius of Iconium, friend of the Cappadocians and cousin of Gregory Nazianzen, the exhortation to follow the ethics of the pagans but not their theology.” This amounts to less than a damning condemnation of Pagan ethics and morality.[7]
Pagan critic Celsus, writing at the turn of the second century, went so far as to accuse the Christians of a lack of originality in the area of morality.[8] Origen, in his response, does not even try to contest the point, but settles for asserting that “basic moral principles are by divine disposition universally one and the same.”
Whittaker notes that Christian apologists of the second century “took pains to emphasize the similarities rather than the divergences between their beliefs and the pagan wisdom of the Roman Empire.”[9] Even the bigoted Augustine insisted that philosophers converting to Christianity leave only their false doctrines behind, not their way of life.[10]
Follow the ethics of the Pagans, Pastor Barber. Not their theology. At the time, this was the dividing line between your followers of Christ and Pagans: theology, not morality. You and the rest of the Religious Right conflate the two.
If there is something to be worried about, it is that, as Laurence writes, “a dominant culture of repression can only thrive if a transgressive subculture is seen as a threat.”
It is, in fact, Pastor Barber, as part of that culture of repression, who is the problem, not “the advocates for the sexual revolution” he condemns.
Notes:
[1] Jonathan Hirsch. God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism (NY: Viking Compass, 2004), 121.
[2] See Ray Laurence, Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome(London: Continuum, 2009).
[3] Lynn R. LiDonnici, “The Images of Artemis Ephesia and Greco-Roman Worship: A Reconstruction,” HTR 85 (1992), 393, 409 n. 81, 411.
[4] Robert L. Wilken, “Toward a Social Interpretation of Early Christian Apologetics” Church History 39 (1970), 442. As Wilken goes on to say, “If some Christians celebrated the liturgy without clothes, it would not take long for the word to get out that Christians as a group were depraved.”
[5] Wayne A. Meeks, “Understanding Early Christian Ethics” JBL 105 (1986), 4.
[6] Meeks (1986), 7.
[7] John Whittaker “Christianity and Morality in the Roman Empire”Vigiliae Christianae 33 (1979) 210.
[8] Origen, Contra Cels. 1.4 (PG 11.661).
[9] Whittaker (1979), 212-213
[10] Augustine, Civ. Dei 19.19.

I respect the gay community…

14/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

PUBLISHED13/07/2015 | 10:18

Adrian Cochrane-Watson: ‘I respect the gay community… they have stayed at my B&B’

The new MLA tells Adrian Rutherford about his plans to revive the Ulster Unionist Party, his views on same-sex marriage and claims that he insulted Travellers.

Rising star: New Ulster Unionist MLA Adrian Cochrane-Watson hopes to lead a resurgence of his party in South Antrim

Q. You are one of Stormont’s newest MLAs, but how did you get into politics?

A. I’ve been a member of the Ulster Unionist Party for 25 years. I first joined Antrim Borough Council in 1997 and was a member of the Antrim Town electoral area up to the end of last month. My family had always been great supporters of the UUP.

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A former headmaster at primary school, Paddy Marks, was a councillor and we had always been very supportive of him. My uncles worked and campaigned with him. It was a natural progression to vote Ulster Unionist, to identify with the party and, eventually, to stand for them.
Q. You’ve a long record in local government. How different will your role be as an MLA?
A. I’ve always represented Antrim Town. I’ve served as mayor on two occasions and deputy mayor on two occasions. The big challenge for me, in what is a very short period of time before the next Assembly election, is to ensure that what I believe is the best practice that I’ve delivered to the people of Antrim is delivered to the wider audience of the South Antrim constituency.
I’ve only got 10 months to prove myself to them – the people outside the town or borough of Antrim. It’s a challenge, but it’s one that, working closely with our new MP Danny Kinahan, I feel we can deliver on.

Q. You started at the Assembly on June 29, worked a week, and are now off for nine weeks.
A. No, I’ve a lot of work to do. I’ve already met up with Danny Kinahan and the local council team. Danny only became an MP on May 8.
Together we both have to review the constituency service that we’re offering to see how we can complement each other. We want to look at how we communicate better with the constituency and engage with local community groups.
Q. So it’s not a case of coming along for a few days and going off on holidays for nine weeks?
A. That is definitely not the case. I’ve had the attitude that, even as a local councillor – and I think that role is underestimated – that you’re on call 24/7.
It’s a role I think you have to give a huge commitment to. Certainly I won’t be taking nine weeks’ holidays and I hope the constituency service will reinvent itself over those nine weeks.
Q. Outside politics what are your interests?
A. I’m very family-orientated and my wife and I have four children. I’ve a daughter of 23 and one who is 18. We’re also blessed with a wee boy who is 10 and have long-term fostered another boy who is 13. We’ve just recently taken on a wee boy who is a toddler. He’s been with us for several months. We don’t know what his future will be.
We also have several other kids who come to us for respite. It can be challenging, but it’s rewarding as well to see those children thrive and develop, and for us to make a small difference.
Q. How did you get involved with fostering?
A. We unfortunately lost a child because of a miscarriage. We always had an ambition to have more children, and we thought about it but at the time it wasn’t right for us. We re-engaged with Barnardos, a fantastic organisation, about three-and-a-half years ago and went through the fostering skills programme.
It’s been a great experience for us. The 13-year-old has been with us for about three years and will be with us for life. He’s part of our family. The other wee boy has just joined us, he’s a toddler and a great wee fella. It’s made my wife and I young again, getting up early in the morning and giving him the odd bottle. Every six weeks we’ve a wee boy and a wee girl who continue to come to us.
So every six weeks we have seven kids in the house, but it’s fantastic. They all get on well together. You can do something special for them coming, and they love it. We make as much time as we can for them.
Q. You also have an interest in sport?
A. Yes, I played rugby up until I got too old. I played for the local clubs -Antrim, Randalstown and Ballymena – and represented Ulster Juniors for a short time.
I ended up hurting my cruciate ligament. I did it again messing about playing football, the same one, and the NHS sent me over to a clinic in Liverpool about three years ago.
Steven Gerrard was in the same clinic as me that day – my wife seemed more interested in him.
Q. You were previously threatened with prosecution after confronting an intruder in your home. What happened?
A. I was mayor at the time and my daughter, then 18, was at home with her younger sister and brother, who were about 12 and six respectively.
A man had tried to enter a house on the road where we live about an hour previously. The police had been notified of suspicious activity. We had a wee dog who was ill, and this man discovered the back door had been left open for the dog, and he came in.
It was suggested afterwards he had taken a cocktail of alcohol and drugs. He managed to get inside the house and he tried to engage in some way – he was of ethnic minority – with my daughter. My children were horrified. They barricaded themselves into one of the bedrooms.
My eldest daughter took over, with a hockey stick, to try and defend her brother and sister. Unfortunately the police response wasn’t what was expected. She phoned 999 and mistakes were made by the call centre, which the Assistant Chief Constable was big enough to admit to. She phoned my wife and I, and we made it home from Templepatrick well before the police arrived.
The man was trying to ransack the house, and we held him until police arrived.
Q. Did you assault the culprit?
A. No, there were allegations made but I refuted them at the time. He was 6ft 4, 23 stone. When the police arrived he assaulted the policewoman. Certainly I restrained him until police arrived, but that was it.
This was an individual convicted of assaulting a policewoman, of gaining entry to my home and causing criminal damage to the house. I thought I had every right to restrain him and call the police. Unfortunately, because of the mix-up in the call centre, I was there well before the police did eventually arrive. But I did nothing at all. I was investigated, and I was cleared.
Q. In 2006 you said you would feel uncomfortable having gay couples in the bed and breakfast you ran at the time. Why?
A. This was around the time of civil partnerships being made legal in Northern Ireland. It started after a researcher for the BBC phoned my wife and presented a scenario of a gay couple demanding a double bed.
She made it clear that anyone coming to the house does not demand anything. She clarified her position that she had absolutely no concerns with members of the gay community and I certainly have no concerns. I totally respect members of the gay community.
At that time, with such a young family – it was nine years ago and my daughter was nine, my son was barely two – we just had concerns.
Q. But what concerns?
A. I think the idea of same-sex couples and trying to explain it to a young family, a young family who didn’t have the understanding of two men or two women being together.
If it was a larger facility it wouldn’t have been an issue.
There is no issue today, there has been a huge extension put on and I’m sure members of the gay community have stayed and will continue to stay in the facility, which is now run by my daughter.
Q. Gays are welcome to stay, then?
A. More than welcome.
Q. This had all died down until 2010, when you were not picked as an election candidate because the Conservatives felt you were unsuitable to run in their link-up with the UUP.
A. I was selected by the South Antrim Ulster Unionist Association. Because of the link-up with the Conservatives, both parties had to agree the candidate. They had concerns over myself and the comments I had previously made.
Q. It was obviously very disappointing.
A. It was disappointing at the time. It was more disappointing that the then party leader Sir Reg Empey who came in to stand in South Antrim, and who I fully supported, missed out by about 1,000 votes. That was more disappointing than any personal disappointment I had.
Q. We’ve seen similar incidents such as the Ashers case recently. Is it becoming very difficult for businesses?
A. It’s very disappointing that case ended up in court. I felt it could have been resolved, possibly with a positive outcome for both parties, through dialogue and facilitation.
We’re now in a situation where an appeal has been launched and I can’t say much more.
Q. Do you support the DUP’s idea of a conscience clause?
A. The Ulster Unionist Party view is very mature – it is a matter of conscience. My position is very clear on same-sex marriage. I wouldn’t be supportive of it at present.
However, if there was a debate or discussion in the future, I would enter into it with a very respectful and open mind.
Q. Why are you against gay marriage?
A. I am just slightly uncomfortable with it. I come from a Presbyterian family, from a very Christian household, and within my church and my family I’m just uncomfortable with it.
But, as I said, I’m committed to be respectful. Bear in mind, it was our party which was the creator of Section 75 (which enshrined the rights of every citizen to be treated equally in Northern Ireland) in the Good Friday Agreement.
Q. You previously described Travellers as “scumbags”. Why?
A. It was taken very much out of context. Again, the Travelling community deserve respect and equality. However, they have to adhere to the laws of this country.
We’ve had, unfortunately, in this area illegal encampments, and associated with those encampments has been criminal damage to private property.
Those responsible are a very small minority. As a public representative, I treat everyone the same, and if members of the majority or host community behaved in that manner, they deserve the laws of the country to be imposed on them. I welcome Travellers’ rights, and have worked with Travellers’ groups, and am currently working on a small encampment in the Antrim town area where a family deserves better from the Housing Executive.
But likewise the host community of that area, Rathenraw, deserve better than a Travellers’ encampment being introduced overnight.
Q. “Scumbags” was the wrong word to use then?
A. I certainly wouldn’t use that phrase against the entire Travelling community. No one has anything to fear from me, and certainly not the Travelling community, but the fact of the matter is that all sections of society must adhere to the rules and laws of the country.
Q. Is there a problem with Travellers adhering to the law?
A. No, there’s not, but unfortunately in every social grouping there is a minority – a very small minority – which can get a reputation. The vast majority of the Travelling community is law-abiding and making a positive contribution to the community.
Q. So it doesn’t help when an elected representative refers to them as “scumbags”.
A. I would stress that that was very much taken out of context. It was mis-used by members of Sinn Fein over a specific issue in the town of Antrim.
Q. What are your priorities for South Antrim?
A. As with every constituency, too high a percentage of our unemployed are young people. Between the ages of 16 and 25, we have about 25% of people unemployed.
Young people not actively engaged in employment or training programmes are a target audience which I believe we need to commit more resources to. The main issue, and it has bogged down the Assembly, is welfare reform.
I hope welfare reform will happen and the £600m package which is there, and will support and provide for the most vulnerable in our society, can be implemented.
Q. Can you really achieve much in 10 months?
A. I think you can be judged on two fronts.
The first is how you deliver at the Assembly itself, and sometimes that is dictated by how well the Assembly itself is delivering. Secondly, more importantly, is the constituency service you deliver.
I have had an office in Antrim High Street for 14 years, and have been accessible to the community, dealing with everyday issues. It is about developing a reputation as a hard-working, delivering MLA.
I know I’ve got that reputation in Antrim Town. I want to be sure I’ve got that reputation throughout South Antrim.
We’re a fast-growing association and the past few years have been highly successful.
We ran 12 candidates in the council elections and got 12 elected.
We put up Danny, after 10 years of neglect from Willie McCrea, and won that seat back.
So I think we’re in a very strong position.
Q. Did Willie McCrea really neglect South Antrim?
A. He was possibly the hide and seek champion.
Unfortunately many of us felt he was never around and he wasn’t delivering for the people of South Antrim. It was up to the electorate to decide who was best placed to represent them at Westminster, and by a majority of almost 1,000 they chose Danny Kinahan.
Q. Until now you have been on the outside of the Assembly. Do you think the criticism it gets is justified?
A. There has been a lack of activity from the Assembly. In my very short time there I’ve seen a fantasy budget put forward with a £600m black hole.
I also witnessed an embarrassing episode surrounding Sammy Wilson and the entire DUP Assembly team sitting there trying to defend Sammy. It was quite a pathetic waste of time and public money.
I’ve also seen the problems between the two majority parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP. People must be wondering what is happening, and the answer is not very much.
There has been a lot of inactivity, a lot of indecision, particularly from the Executive and the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.