ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Virtual Belfast Reception

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Virtual Belfast ReceptionOn July 1st, 2021 the PinkNews, in partnership with Citi and the Rainbow Project, under the title “Virtual Belfast Reception” organised a panel discussion on LGBT+ equality in Northern Ireland.  The Virtual Belfast Reception online meeting involved Doug Beattie, UUP leader, Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein, Colm Eastwood, SDLP leader, Naomi Long, Alliance leader and justice minister, and Mal O’Hara, a Green Party councillor in Belfast and the event was moderated by John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project.
 
 
The virtual meeting was conducted through Zoom, with the audience being able to view but not comment except through the messenger facility of the program.  Areas under discussion were:
 
                • Transgender
                • Self ID Laws
                • LGBTQ+ and Education
                • Conversion Therapy

 

Obviously, during 1hr 30min+ discussion, there were sidetracks; the main one being over political parties and LGBTQ+ rights to which Paul Bradley, deputy leader of the DUP, said that in response to a question from Mr O’Doherty about the DUP and its history of negativity on LGBTQ+ issues, 

“I’m not going to defend some of the things that have been said over the years, because they have been absolutely atrocious. They’ve been shocking, so they have.
“I certainly couldn’t stand by many of those comments – in fact, all of those comments.
“Because I know that the hurt they have caused people and I know that fed into the hatred some people have had to endure in their life, and I think that’s absolutely wrong.
“I think the vast majority of those people that made those comments are no longer there, and the ones that are there have said that they have learned their lessons, that their language at times has not been right.
“It’s something I’ve brought up on numerous occasions with my own party because I think not sometimes, all the time, our language very much that we use as elected representatives has an impact in wider society.
“I can certainly say I apologise for what others have said and done in the past because I do think that there has been some very hurtful comments and some language that really should not have been used.”

(A full transcript can be found in the Newsletter link which is at the end of this article)

 

Now, this was a welcome response, however, it was then followed by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaking on Sunday, July 5th 2021|:

Mr Donaldson acknowledged past comments by members of the party had been “hurtful” to LGBT people here, before adding it was “not just in the case of the DUP”.

While the DUP leader said it is right “that we say sorry and acknowledge hurt”, Mr Donaldson went on to add: “Equally in time, I hope others will be able to acknowledge that they have caused hurt, for example to people from a strongly held faith perspective.”

This is the politician two shoe shuffle, give on one hand and then take away by blaming it all on someone else.

 

Much as Paul Bradly may wish, and indeed believes, that the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) is making strives to reform, it would seem that its current leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, has more in keeping with the leader he replaced Edwin Poots, or if you go back further Mrs Iris Robinson, a previous MLA and wife of the then First Minister ‘Peter Robinson’,  and ‘her’ psychologist who claimed that he could cure gays (gay conversion therapy).

 

Virtual Belfast Reception

 

 

Whilst I have concnetrated on the DUP during this virtual meeting, the other participants were very clear in the answers and supportive.  Some of the phrases which I have written down are:

  • Even though things have changed, there is ‘always a need to remain alert’.
  • If you ‘Stop pushing forward, then we will move back’
  • Even though we have had ‘Immense change, the lesson is we have to keep gong’
  • ‘Always think about those young people in turmoil’
  • ‘A Safe Place For All Of Our People’

Links:

 

The Conversion Therapy Saga

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This Conversion Therapy Saga is yet again another reason why I deplore the UK Government’s lethargy in making “conversion therapy” illegal.  Here we have a man (Dr. Ole Ivar Lovaas) who developed “conversion therapy” but also tried to make autistic children “normal”.

Conversion Therapy

I have previously discussed “conversion therapy2 as applied to people within the LGBTQ+ community in my article ‘Conversion Therapy – Rethink Finally‘ published 11 September 2020

The worrying factor about both these therapies is that they in effect abuse the recipients, for the LGBTQ+ candidates they at least can make themselves heard about the abuse they received, for the autistic children it is extremely doubtful that they ever could or would be in such a position.

“No matter what form it takes, gay conversion therapy is going to be psychologically harmful,” Becker said. “They’re told that they can change this thing they can’t change, and it leads to devastating consequences.”

Dr. Lovaas died in 2010, however, his therapy for autistic children remains on the books I believe for ‘all states’ in the USA, and in only 20 states is gay conversion therapy banned.

 

Links:

Same Sex Marriage

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Editorial:

Last week we published the wedding of two Spanish policemen in full uniform with full honour guard.  You have to admit that they did look very handsome and happy at their wedding.

Today we carry on the theme, but publishing information on the Spanish Conservative ruling party whose leaders attended the same-sex marriage of their deputy secretary-general, giving tacit approval to a law they once bitterly opposed.

Life is changing all over the world, and when our local politicians in Northern Ireland resolve their differences, bigotry and stupidity maybe we to will move forward.

 

LGBT_flag_map_of_SpainSpain’s conservative ruling party leaders attend gay wedding

By HAROLD HECKLE | Associated Press – 12 hours ago

MADRID (AP) — The top brass of Spain’s ruling conservative Popular Party including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy have attended the same-sex marriage of their deputy secretary-general, giving tacit approval to a law they once bitterly opposed.

Javier Maroto exchanged vows with Josema Rodriguez late Friday at a ceremony in the northern city of Vitoria attended by Rajoy, secretary-general Maria Dolores Cospedal and other party dignitaries, the party said in a statement.
“In Spain, the right to marriage is for everyone and we all share that message today,” Maroto said afterward.
“Parties evolve,” he added. “Now my party and the government join in backing that right.”
Maroto and Rodriguez have been partners in a same-sex relationship for 19 years. Apart from being a senior leader in the Popular Party, Maroto is a former mayor of Vitoria.
Parliament legalized gay marriage in 2005 under a Socialist government, angering conservatives in once-staunchly Roman Catholic Spain. The Popular Party then challenged the law but Spain’s Constitutional Court — the highest in the land — upheld its legality.

Now, a decade after voicing strong opposition to gay marriage, photographs at the ceremony that ended early Saturday showed Rajoy with other party leaders smiling broadly as they posed beside the two grooms

Washington Post: Parents Pressure Gay Son To Change

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“Readers of The Sun know and speak and write words like poof and poofter. What is good enough for them is good enough for us,” Sun editorial, May 1990.
 
Twenty-three plus years later, in the USA we have a parent who is rejecting her son because he is gay (see below).  IN July 2012 the BBC political reporter, Brian Wheeler, wrote an article entitled ‘Gay Politicians and the Tabloid Press’  which was a review of the book Sex, Lies and Politics: Gay Politicians in the Press, and also a commentary on whether the press has moved forward from its bigotry.

The conclusion is that we in Britain, and obviously in the USA, still have a long way to go in accepting and embracing all of the LGBT Society

By , Published: November 18

DEAR AMY: I recently discovered that my son, who is 17, is a homosexual. We are part of a church group and I fear that if people in that group find out they will make fun of me for having a gay child.
 
He won’t listen to reason, and he will not stop being gay. I feel as if he is doing this just to get back at me for forgetting his birthday for the past three years — I have a busy work schedule.
Please help him make the right choice in life by not being gay. He won’t listen to me, so maybe he will listen to you. — Feeling Betrayed
DEAR BETRAYED: You could teach your son an important lesson by changing your own sexuality to show him how easy it is. Try it for the next year or so: Stop being a heterosexual to demonstrate to your son that a person’s sexuality is a matter of choice — to be dictated by one’s parents, the parents’ church and social pressure.
I assume that my suggestion will evoke a reaction that your sexuality is at the core of who you are. The same is true for your son. He has a right to be accepted by his parents for being exactly who he is.
When you “forget” a child’s birthday, you are basically negating him as a person. It is as if you are saying that you have forgotten his presence in the world. How very sad for him.
Pressuring your son to change his sexuality is wrong. If you cannot learn to accept him as he is, it might be safest for him to live elsewhere.
A group that could help you and your family figure out how to navigate this is Pflag.org. This organization is founded for parents, families, friends and allies of LGBT people, and has helped countless families through this challenge. Please research and connect with a local chapter.
 

 
Further reading: