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Jim Wells health committee call over gay abuse comments

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Reprinted from BBC News:


Media captionA row has broken out over comments made by Northern Ireland health minister Jim Wells, as BBC News NI Political Correspondent Stephen Walker reports

The chair of Stormont’s health committee has said she has called Health Minister Jim Wells before the committee to explain his comments on same sex relationships.

Mr Wells apologised on Friday after he linked gay relationships and the abuse of children at a hustings meeting on Thursday night.
Maeve McLaughlin welcomed the apology.
However, she said she wanted Mr Wells to explain the nature of the alleged research he had quoted at the event.
“While I welcome his apology and retraction of the offensive comments, questions still remain for Jim Wells to answer,” Ms McLaughlin said.
“I look forward to the minister’s appearance before the committee and I hope he will take the opportunity to completely and unequivocally refute his baseless claims.”
Police are investigating the comments by Mr Wells.
He told a hustings event: “You don’t bring a child up in a homosexual relationship. That a child is far more likely to be abused and neglected…”
The minister was then interrupted by uproar from the audience.
In a later statement, he said: “I accept that one line of what I said caused offence and deep concern.”
Mr Wells added: “I regret having wrongly made that remark about abuse and I’m sorry those words were uttered. The comment did not reflect my view nor that of my party.”

‘Mask has slipped’

The police said they had received a complaint and officers were currently making inquiries.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: “Those comments have lifted the lid on some really unpleasant views. The mask has slipped.

Media captionSpeaking in Sheffield, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the “mask has slipped” following Jim Wells’ comments

“I’ve been warning for weeks that while, of course, we should be alarmed about the prospects of Ed Miliband dancing to the tune of Alex Salmond, we should be equally alarmed at the prospect of a hapless David Cameron, minority Conservative administration, dancing to the tune of Nigel Farage, the right wing of his own party and some of these truly, truly, backward looking views from the DUP.”
Mr Wells, the DUP South Down candidate in the 7 May election, made the comments during a discussion on gay marriage.
In a second statement on Friday morning, Mr Wells said the past few weeks had “been extremely difficult” for him personally as he had “just come from a hospital visit”.
He added: “Within seconds of realising this error, I asked the chairman to let me back in and twice corrected my remarks before the debate moved on.”
The Ulster Unionist Party said the comments were “absolutely appalling… and totally wrong”.
UUP leader Mike Nesbitt told the BBC’s Nolan Show that an electoral pact between his party and the DUP, in four Westminster constituencies, remained in place.

Assembly rules

However, he added: “Jim Wells needs to do more in deed and in action to prove that the real Jim Wells is reflected in this morning’s statement rather than in yesterday’s comment.”
South Down Conservative candidate Felicity Buchan also attended the hustings event.
“The Conservative Party and I personally do not in any way agree with what was said.”
Alliance North Down MLA, Stephen Farry, said: “There is absolutely no link between the incidence of abuse and neglect and the sexual orientation of parents,” he said.

‘No distinction’

“Nor indeed, is there any difference between two-parent and single-parent households.”
The SDLP said it was going to submit a motion of no confidence in Mr Wells.
Margaret Ritchie, who is standing as an SDLP candidate, said his comments were “completely unacceptable”.
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Ivan Lewis, said: “It is right that Jim Wells has apologised for these highly inappropriate remarks. There can be no justification for false and stigmatising statements about LGBT people.
“There should be a commitment to zero tolerance of homophobia across the United Kingdom, including in Northern Ireland.”
 
Further reading of interest:

Snap 2015-04-26 at 12.36.22
 
 
 
 
 

ELECTION Fever: LGBT issues: Northern Ireland party views

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Slugger O'Toole

Editorial :  Be careful who you vote for.  Educate yourself and your friends.

on 22 April 2015 , 8:23 pm
Research conducted by Ruth McCarthy highlights some stark differences between the parties contesting this years Westminster elections in Northern Ireland on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
LGBT Isues
A series of questions were asked:

1a Does your party visibly support LGBTQ equality issues in your party manifesto, on your website and in election campaigning materials?
If YES, please give examples. If NO, please state why.
1b Please give any other examples of how your party supports LGBTQ visibility.
2a What is your party policy on tackling homophobia and transphobia through education and training in schools?
2b What is your party’s record in actively tackling homophobia and transphobia through education and training in schools?
3a What is your party’s policy on addressing the serious health inequalities faced by LGBTQ people?
3b What is your party’s record in actively addressing the serious health inequalities faced by LGBTQ people?
4a Does your party support Equal Marriage for same-sex couples in Northern Ireland?
4b What is your party’s record in actively supporting Equal Marriage for same-sex couples?
5a Does your party support the Conscience Clause? 5b What is your party’s record in actively opposing the Conscience Clause?
6a Does your party support a total ban on gay men giving blood?
6b What’s your party’s track record in opposing the blood ban for gay men?
7 Does your party have any LGBTQ-identified candidates standing in the 2015 General Election?
8 Does your party have any mandatory training or education for staff around LGBTQ issues? If NO, do you plan to change this? Please outline when.
9 Trans communities in the UK And Ireland have united to produce a simple three point manifesto that they
are asking all 2015 Election candidates to support or decline. It takes less than a minute to read and you can find it at www.transmanifesto.org.uk
Does your party support or decline the three main principles?
A few samples on the question “Does your party support Equal Marriage for same-sex couples in Northern Ireland?”
SDLP: 

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.

DUP:

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

Forget the SNP, the DUP Tory coalition is the one you should worry about

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Editorial:  Be careful who you vote for!  And remember if you are entitled to vote, you must vote.  Don’t waste the opportunity and allow politicians to get an easy ride over LGBT matters!

 
Reprinted from the Mirror – 16:54, 23 April 2015 By Federica Cocco

The DUP might end up in government with the Tory party – 10 reasons we should be afraid

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?

1. They want to legalise discrimination against LGBT people

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.

2. Homophobia is deep-rooted within the party

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.

3. They don’t exactly champion women’s rights

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.
 

4. They think schools should teach creationism

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.
 

5. They oppose gay marriage

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.
 

6. They want to ban begging

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.
 

8. They support the death penalty

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.
 

9. They could become besties with UKIP

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.
 

10. In fact they will probably win more MPs than UKIP

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]

Who would you rather ended up in government?

Why not write and let us know!
 

Conversion Therapy Put Forward Again!

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Editorial:  The elections are here, and as I have written before, you need to be careful for whom you vote.  Mr Dodds, a right-wing Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland politician, has not denied that on a Newsnight debate that his party would want a coalition to “reject gay rights”.  Other parties also have agendas regarding the LGBT community – find out what they are before you vote.

Militant Christian preachers want to ‘cure’ Britain’s gay people with controversial conversion therapy

 
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

Dr Robert Gagnon, John Nightingale

Homophobic: Dr Robert Gagnon and John Nightingale support conversion therapy


 
 
Hardline Christian ­counsellors say they aim to “cure”­ ­Britain’s gays – despite experts branding their ­treatments potentially harmful.
Our reporter attended a shocking conference on “anti-gay” therapy in Central London this week.
Delegates paid £20 to hear a series of homophobic talks by ­professionally accredited therapists from several Christian groups.
One likened homosexuality to incest, while another put it in the same bracket as paedophilia.
They told the audience Britain is “in need of redemption” and would be condemned to hell if it failed to stop the rising gay population.
 
 
Emmanuel Centre

Shocking: The conference was held at the Emmanuel Centre in London


 
Shocking: The conference was held at the Emmanuel Centre in London
One Christian counsellor, Dr Robert Gagnon, said: “What we are ­encountering in society now is nothing less than totalitarian thuggery under the guise of love.”
Two of the organisations – The Core Issues Trust and Christian Concern – are ­registered charities, giving them tax breaks despite their ­controversial views.
In January, 14 organisations including the British Psychological Society and the NHS endorsed the Government’s ­memorandum of understanding on conversion therapy.
It said the practice was ­potentially “damaging” and agreed not to refer people conflicted about their ­sexuality for “gay cures”.
The Association of Christian Counsellors also signed up.
But at the conference, named Transformation Potential, the ­association’s John Nightingale revealed his organisation and sister groups still supported the ­practice.
Speaking at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster, he said the restrictions had put them on a “knife edge” but they would continue regardless, renouncing their ­accreditation if necessary.
Mike Davidson

Scandal: Mike Davidson wanted to advertise his conversion services on London buses


He said: “If it tightened up any more, I have a pretty sure ­understanding that as an ­organisation we would step out and become one of the non-registered counselling organisations.
“It might affect my standing in the family of ­counsellors but I’m happy to make that choice.”
Mike Davidson, of the Core Issues Trust, made headlines in 2013 after trying to advertise his conversion services on London buses.
He and others speaking at the conference rejected any genetic cause of homosexuality and linked it to “trauma” such as sexual abuse, bad father-son relationships, or a lack of masculinity.
Dr Davidson said: “Therapists get to do it ­regularly for people with adulterous desires or pornographic addiction or ­paedophilia.
“So is so-called sexual ­orientation some sacred turf that mustn’t be walked upon?”
James Holland, 47, went to the conference out of curiosity after a bad ­experience in the past.
He said: “I was alarmed by what I heard but I wasn’t surprised.”
James told how he had conversion counselling 20 years ago as he was unhappy about being gay.
He said: “We were told to be like a glass of water that you keep topping up with masculinity.”
Matt SprakeJames HollandCalls: James Holland who tried conversion counselling said such therapy should be banned
This included not crossing his legs as it was “feminine” and doing male ­activities like playing football.
He continued: “I was paired with a man in my church to have a healthy same-sex friendship with so I could top up my masculinity.
James Holland

Calls: James Holland who tried conversion counselling said such therapy should be banned


 
“I had a crush on my man and it produced so much stress in me I had a breakdown.”
James, of Walthamstow, sought non-Christian therapy and now accepts his homosexuality.
He added: “Gay conversion therapy needs to be banned.”
Last week, US President Barack Obama backed a campaign calling for a federal ban on the practice.

DUP stance fuels homophobia

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The LGBT Rainbow

 

The LGBT Rainbow

 

HAVE YOUR SAY

I am amazed to read in the News Letter (February 21) that the DUP cannot see how their attitude can help create an atmosphere leading to the homophobic attacks on Paul Finlay-Dickson and his late partner.
When they say that it’s a “right” for people with strongly held personal beliefs to “object” to people of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual sexual orientation they cannot control how everyone outworks that objection?

DUP politicians have said that they find Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual , Transgendered (LGBT) people repugnant, can’t even say when challenged that they don’t object to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and some wish that civil partnerships hadn’t happened, all merely piles coals on the fire of homophobia.
Liberal Democrats believe nobody should be enslaved by ignorance, but the way the DUP talks about homosexuality as a threat to Christianity is instilling a dangerous, venomous and intolerant ignorance into some.

Paul Givan by currently going around saying that LGBT rights are greater than those of Christians is not just incorrect but so widely off the mark, thanks mainly to the DUP blocking any steps allowing LGBT rights to advance towards equality.
The DUP talk about competing rights, but sadly they have historically fought to maintain that the rights of LGBT people are not to be anywhere near equal to those the majority of Northern Ireland, and also well behind LGBT people elsewhere in the UK.
Their historical talking down and belittling of LGBT people is exactly what can lead to some going about these homophobic attacks.
The DUP only pay lip service to the equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Act for those of differing sexual orientation and constantly fail in taking action or speaking in a way that reflects that LGBT people are of value. Now they look to dismantle accommodations that have been made to deal with those competing rights, focusing only on the rights as laid out in Human Rights legislation but ignoring the responsibilities to respect the rights of others in the same articles.

Changing Attitudes Ireland are right to point out the way the words and actions of the DUP fuel the environment of homophobia across the province, especially as the DUP fail completely to converse on such issues.
Stephen Glenn
Bangor
LGBT Plus, Liberal Democrats Executive

Church of Ireland split over gay rights and DUP's conscience clause Bill

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I am reprinting an article which appeared in the Belfast Telegraph on March 4th, 2015 about the proposed ‘conscience clause’ being introduced into Stormont.  What I find interesting is the rhetoric being used by both the politicians and the church in favour of this clause.  In November 2010, The Daily Telegraph published a letter from religious leaders urging the then Labour government to reconsider the lowering of the agent of consent.  It was signed by 17 signatories, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey and Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, head of the Roman Catholic Church and the secretary general of Muslim Council of Great Britain.

The letter stressed strong ‘moral’ objections to the lowering of the age of homosexual consent: that it brought alleged health risks, and ran counter to “the beliefs of many religious people – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus,” and that the legislation was contrary to public opinion.
To accept this ‘conscience clause’ is to accept a step back to the days where we had no rights.  I honestly urge you to write to your councillors, MPs, Stormont representatives and tell them that this clause is wrong.
The Stop the Clause petition had more than 148,000 people who have signed the petition against the Northern Ireland DUP-backed “conscience clause” bill that would permit anti-gay discrimination.
                                   

 
 

Church of Ireland split over gay rights and DUP’s conscience clause Bill

Canon Charles Kenny, left, and Rev Adrian DorrianCanon Charles Kenny, left, and Rev Adrian Dorrian
Canon Charles Kenny, left, and Rev Adrian Dorrian
BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 04 MARCH 2015
A split has opened in the Church of Ireland over its attitude to the DUP’s ‘conscience clause’.
An article in tomorrow’s Church of Ireland Gazette newspaper has sparked off an angry reaction from a pro-LGBT pressure group.
In the article, the Rev Adrian Dorrian, chairman of the Church and Society Commission, said he broadly welcomed the Bill introduced by the DUP’s Paul Givan.
If passed, the Lagan Valley MLA’s Private Members Bill would allow those with strongly-held religious beliefs to refuse to provide certain services.
Mr Dorrian said he would seek amendments to the bill to “ensure it cannot be used to facilitate discrimination against members of the LGBT community”.
The Bill was introduced by Mr Givan after the Equality Commission took legal action against Asher’s Bakery over its refusal to make a cake with a message promoting gay marriage.
Rev Dorrian said: “We will certainly encourage a comprehensive conversation around religious and civil freedom in Northern Ireland and I will be affirming the Church of Ireland’s position that marriage ‘is part of God’s creation and a holy mystery in which one man and one woman become one flesh’.”
However, Canon Charles Kenny from the Church of Ireland’s gay rights group Changing Attitude Ireland said Rev Dorrian’s views may not be representative.
The Church of Ireland did not make a formal written response to a consultation process on the bill which ended last Friday.
Rev Kenny said: “I hope that the Rev Dorrian’s view is not shared by all members of the Commission or the wider membership of the Church of Ireland.”
“This is more Mr Dorrian’s views, as he’s known as a social conservative, rather than the views of the Church and Society Commission as they have not put out any official response to the DUP over the consultation.
“He seems to be making this an issue between gay people on one hand and Christians on the other.
“And it’s not. There are lots and lots of members who do not accept the hardline, fundamentalist, biblical literalistic line that Mr Givan and the DUP has as a whole.”
He said that he was dismayed at the anti-gay motivation and tone of the DUP’s conscience clause but was heartened by the nearly quarter of a million signatories to an online petition against it.
Last night Mr Dorrian confirmed that the Church and Society Commission had yet not met to discuss its official response, although he and several other Commission members met Mr Givan yesterday.
He said: “With regard to the Ashers Bakery cake I think the vast majority of Christians seem to think that there is mismatch between the Ashers case in relation to the charges being brought against the bakery and what actually happened. The Church of Ireland is very clear that there can be no room for discrimination, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be a disagreement about how to interpret the morality of such things.”
In 2012, the church’s Synod voted to reaffirm its support of traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

Unionist bigotry is on full display over Irish language and gay equality

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I am reprinting this to highlight a possible problem, and to provide evidence that all of the LGBT community needs to be vigilant when it comes to which MP/MLA it will vote for in the forthcoming elections.

I am not saying that you shouldn’t vote for whoever you wish to, but I am advising you to ask questions of your MP/MLA – or even your local councillors as to what stand they are making over equality.
 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Republished from IrishCentral website

Dara Kelly @irishcentral November 25,2014 01:46 AM
"DUP

DUP member Paul Givan pledged to introduce a new private member’s bill to allow the public to legally discriminate against gay people in Northern Ireland based on their “conscience.”

The world had a sobering look at the unvarnished bigotry of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland this week, after one prominent member expressed his contempt for the Irish language whilst another sought to exempt party supporters from following from Northern Ireland’s equality laws.
In language calculated to offend, DUP member Gregory Campbell told a party conference that he would treat a proposed Irish Language Act “as no more than toilet paper,” garnering hearty applause from the attendees.
Meanwhile fellow DUP member Paul Givan pledged to introduce a new private member’s bill to allow the public to legally discriminate against gay people in Northern Ireland based on their “conscience.”
It remains to be seen why people of good conscience would want to discriminate against the Irish language or gays, of course.
But in explaining their positions Campbell and Givan made free with the kind of hostile rhetoric that would result in their immediate firing in other states, but in Northern Ireland has actually elevated the DUP to its current status as the voice of unionism.
Because of the DUP’s intransigence, Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that has failed to enact full equality measures – rather than enacting same sex marriage they have effectively banned it.
Givan’s anti-equality pledge was made in the light of Ashers Baking Company’s controversial refusal to bake a Sesame Street themed cake that endorsed same sex marriage.
“Nobody should be compelled or coerced into supporting, sanctioning or promoting views or opinions which conflict with their strongly held religious convictions,” said Given, who apparently felt that simply decorating a cake was tantamount to the complete surrender of his so-called Christian values.
And in an unprecedented move, the DUP party leader Peter Robinson has called for party members to contribute to the bakery’s legal costs, abandoning all attempts at impartiality.
Apparently no one has explained to Campbell or Givan or the DUP that no one is denying them their right to be British or Christian or heterosexual or unionists. But for them “freedom of conscience” apparently means they wish to retain the right to legally discriminate against others.
Party leader Peter Robinson’s wife Irish made international headlines for her sanctimonious attacks on Northern Ireland’s gays, whom she said were more vile than child abusers. Later it emerged she had been conducting an affair with a teenage boy she had known since his childhood.
 
 

15 years after Matthew Shepard: so much achieved for gay rights, but so much more to do

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I remember reading my copy of Gay Times about the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard. At the time I ended up in tears, and this evening re-reading about the murder, looking at photographs of those responsible as well as of that infamous fence in the State of Wyoming and the well known family photo of Matthew. The Matthew Shepard Foundation posted the following status on Facebook, and I feel that we should spread it wider.

1243162_595280560534122_1768961158_o“15 years ago this evening, Matthew Shepard was driven from the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming to the outskirts of the city by two strangers who did not like that he was gay. They tied him to a fence, beat him with the butt of a gun, and left him for dead.
“The Casper Star Tribune, Matthew’s hometown newspaper, ran a beautiful story of the contradictions Wyoming still has in the acceptance and treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“These contradictions parallel those at the national and international level as well. Just because same-sex couples can get married in 13 states and the District of Columbia doesn’t mean that these couples don’t have to think about their rights when they go on vacation. Or get transferred for work and move to one of the 29 states in which you can be fired for being gay, 33 for being transgender.
“While progress has been made over the last 15 years, we have a long way to go before we have true, meaningful equality.”

— Matthew Shepard Foundation Facebook page

So much achieved, yet so much still to do

So much has been achieved for gay rights across the world in the years since Matthew’s cruel death, but we have still so much to do. Fifteen years on, the same homophobia seen in Wyoming in 1998 is very much alive and well here in Northern Ireland.

  • A man had his nose broken nose during a homophobic assault on the Dublin to Belfast train between Newry and Portadown in December 2012. (Belfast Telegraph)
  • Henry McDonald wrote in the Guardian that the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland found in some research that 80% of homophobic attacks here in Northern Ireland are not reported.
  • Thug jailed for homophobic attack in Belfast gay bar reported in the Belfast Telegraph in June 2013
  • In September three men admitted the manslaughter of Andrew Lorimer in Lurgan in what is a suspected homophobic attack.
  • A drug addict took a legal high before he attacked a man and shouted homophobic abuse at him, a court heard in July 2013. (BBC News)

The cases illustrated above are those which have made it into a quick search on Google. I am sure that there have been many more homophobic incidents since this time last year. As the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said in the past,

“Hate crime is unacceptable, no one deserves to experience it and no one deserves to get away with it. To stop it, report it, do not suffer in silence.”

It is clear to me that we must continue to stand up for our rights, not just against homophobic attacks but the anti-gay policies of the DUP health minister, Edwin Poots, who seems to be leading a new crusade against our rights in his relentless appeals against decisions of the Northern Irish Courts relating to the Gay Blood Ban, and Adoption by Gay Couples.
Anyone interested in working towards full equality for all who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, please get in touch and help stand alongside our brothers and sisters in the Matthew Shepard Foundation working to ‘Erase Hate’ now.