Poll finds 85% of people support marriage equality as demonstrations set to take place in Belfast

29/05/2015 By Dave McFarlane Leave a Comment

The Gay Say : MAY 28, 2015
What’s next for LGBT rights in Northern Ireland?

MARRIAGE EQUALITY DEMONSTRATIONS:

RALLY – SATURDAY 30TH MAY – 2PM ASSEMBLY AT BELFAST CITY HALL.

MARCH AND DEMONSTRATION – SATURDAY 13TH JUNE 2015 – 2.30PM ASSEMBLY AT WRITER’S SQUARE.

As Northern Ireland’s neighbours each began to embrace marriage equality it was becoming obvious that as a nation we would soon be left out in the cold when it comes to LGBT rights.
Now following an historic result in Ireland’s Yes vote in the Marriage Equality Referendum there is a prominent patch of inequality in the UK and Ireland.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK which does not allow gay marriage after England, Wales and Scotland introduced marriage equality legislation last year.
The DUP, the biggest party in Northern Ireland has steadfastly refused to follow suit. Motions to legalise same-sex marriage have been rejected four times in the assembly.
The last motion in April fell after 47 MLAs voted in support while 49 voted against. The result, however, was a forgone conclusion as it had already been blocked by a DUP petition of concern.
The issues surrounding the rights of the LGBT community are bubbling to the surface more frequently now.
Recent news and events involving the former Health Minister Jim Wells, Northern Ireland’s blood ban, the Ashers Bakery gay cake row, reports of homophobia during the Westminster election campaign and recent blocks on introducing marriage equality have only served to highlight the difficulties experienced by LGBT people here.
Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Programme Director Patrick Corrigan has criticised Northern Ireland’s politicians for blocking the equality legislation.
“This historic result [in the Republic of Ireland] will echo around the world – it shows how a once socially-conservative country can transform itself into a beacon of equality,” he said.
“Northern Ireland is now the last bastion of discrimination against gay people in these islands.
“Northern Ireland’s discriminatory laws are a badge of shame – not to be worn by the people of Northern Ireland, a majority of whom support same-sex marriage, but by those politicians who oppose equal treatment for the LGBTI community.
“The Northern Ireland Executive should waste no more time in fulfilling its first duty to its people – to ensure that none are treated as second-class citizens.”
Amnesty, along with The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and The Rainbow Project, will hold a mass rally in support of equal marriage (facebook event page link) rights on June 13.
A statement from John O’Doherty, Director of The Rainbow Project, last week reads:
“Northern Ireland is now the only region in Western Europe where marriage equality is not a reality. This is a shameful injustice which cannot be allowed to continue. 1a1a marriage equality rally 2 13th
‘To highlight this injustice, The Rainbow Project and our partners in Amnesty International and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have announced a march and rally for marriage equality to be held in Belfast on Saturday 13th June, assembling at Writers’ Square for 2.30pm.
The March for Civil Marriage Equality through central Belfast will culminate in a rally in front of Belfast City Hall.
‘We will continue our fight to ensure that Equality becomes a reality for all the peoples of these islands.’
Some people are calling for a referendum on the issue whilst others are hoping that the outcome of an on-going court case will result in the implementation of marriage equality legislation.
Besides the marriage equality march in Belfast on June 13th there will be another protest at City Hall being organised this Saturday 30th May held at City hall.
The event has been organised by the party People Before Profit and has over 4,000 confirmed attendees on the Facebook event page. 1a1a marriage equality rally 2 13thx1
The event description for the protest on Facebook reads:
“The referendum in the Republic of Ireland has given great hope to the LGBT community around the world. The referendum was not just about equal marriage, as important as that is. It also gives us all hope that we can build a more equal and fair society.
“However, in Northern Ireland we still do not have the right to marry and elected representatives have failed to get a motion passed for same sex marriage 4 times. Shame on our Assembly!
As a young member of the LGBT community myself I am disgusted at this. But I feel now that the result in the South should spur us on here in the North. Equality can’t wait!
“Let’s get out and make our voices heard. Fellow Members of the LGBT community and everyone who believes in equality, I urge you to join us in a rally, Saturday 30th May, at 2pm, City hall!
“I hope to see many people there, it’s urgent that we organise a large movement to fight against this oppression and demand equal marriage status!”
In a post on the Facebook event page, People Before Profit councillor, Gerry Carroll said:
“This could be the start of a big movement. Well done everyone! Let’s make it a big one! And now the great people at the Rainbow Project and others have called for a big rally in June too! Fantastic! Let’s get everyone down next Saturday as a start for a really big movement that will shake the Assembly to its core. And then get everyone down in June!”
The news of the planned demonstrations comes with a surge in support for equal marriage.
A recent survey in the Belfast Telegraph has found 85% of people believe same sex marriage should be allowed in Northern Ireland (13% said No, 2% said they “Don’t care”).
TGS are encouraging as many people as possible to get involved in the events and put further pressure on the Assembly to embrace equality legislation.

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

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.

Marriage Equality in Northern Ireland

25/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Editorial: The vote has been a resounding YES for marriage equality in the Republic of Ireland, and the calls are not out for our politicians in Northern Ireland to react positively to this result. Only time will tell whether our politicians will do so, will they take the lead or will they be left behind?

A couple embraces after the Referendum result

I am going to provide links to interesting articles from he local and national papers which all hold similar points of view:

Ballot boxes are emptied in Dublin for counting of votes in the referendum on same-sex marriage.The support for the proposal south of the border will come north of the border too. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

What do you think should happen? The Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association supports the rights of all people to be equal, and ask therefore that our politicians now engage with the people and put forward a equality marriage bill!

Northern Ireland is now the odd one out on same-sex marriage

24/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

23^rd May 2015, 7:58 PM
LAST UPDATED AT 9:07 PM
Nick Duffy

Following the victory of same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland has grown increasingly isolated on the issue.

The Republic of Ireland yesterday held a referendum on a proposal to introduce civil same-sex marriage.

Despite fears that a strong turnout among older, religious voters could sway the referendum against equality, it was announced today that the vote passed by 62.1% to 37.9%.
However, in Northern Ireland the Democratic Unionist Party government continues to block all LGBT rights legislation including same-sex marriage – with the measure rejected by Stormont for a fourth time last month despite popular support.
The DUP has dismissed calls to follow the Republic of Ireland in holding a referendum – but Northern Ireland is now very much isolated in Northern Europe on the issue.
In Europe, same-sex marriage is now legal in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden – as well as Scotland, England and Wales inside the United Kingdom.
The Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are also still to introduce equality – but have a much smaller population than Northern Ireland’s 1.8 million.
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has previously called for a referendum in Northern Ireland following roadblocks in Stormont, saying: “What would be very interesting for me, would be to gauge whether or not on the issue of equality, in regard to the rights of people in LGBT community, the assembly actually is representative of people here in the north and I think it would be very interesting if we had a referendum.
“In fact I would advocate that we should have a referendum.
“This is a matter of whether or not we want to live in a modern progressive society that respects minorities, and as far as I’m concerned the LGBT community for far too long have been discriminated against and I believe that they are entitled to be treated as equals and treated with respect.”

LGBT Walking Group

21/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

This might be of interest to you. Our Dublin walking group have been busy!

We’re walking in the Mournes with our Dublin counterparts on Sunday. I hope we’ll have Marriage Equality cake for celebrations. If any of you want to come, let me know: you’ll need the usual walking gear and a pair of walking boots- lovely walks planned with upwards of 30 people expected.

The same-sex marriage referendum has transformed Ireland before it’s even begun

19/05/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

The Guardian – Sunday 17 May 2015 15.04 BST Last modified on Monday 18 May 2015 08.29 BST
Una Mullally

As a gay Irish woman, the campaign for equal rights has tested me to breaking point. But it has also been a time of wonderful solidarity

Rally in support of same-sex marriage in Dublin

‘For the yes campaign, the final week before the referendum on same-sex marriage is about galvanising support.’ Photograph: Robin English/Demotix/Corbis

Last week, Ursula Halligan, the well-known and much liked political editor of TV3, came out in the Irish Times. Halligan wrote that she had been resigned to going to her grave with the secret of being gay, until the referendum campaign for same-sex marriage in Ireland began.
If carried this Friday, Ireland will be the first country in the world to pass marriage rights for same-sex couples by popular vote. “For me, there was no first kiss; no engagement party; no wedding,” wrote Halligan. “And up until a short time ago no hope of any of these things. Now, at the age of 54, in a (hopefully) different Ireland, I wish I had broken out of my prison cell a long time ago.”
The yes campaign has largely been fought with personal stories. I recently wrote my Irish Times column about how I had stuttered while naming my girlfriend as next of kin in hospital, while being diagnosed with stage three cancer in March. For me, the referendum is the most important thing to happen in my lifetime in Ireland. A yes vote would mean being equal to my brother and my sisters, and finally accepted as such in Irish society. A no vote is almost too devastating to imagine.
The referendum has been divisive in debate, but unifying in people power
Ireland’s most respected columnist, Fintan O’Toole, has also drawn on his personal life to advocate a yes vote. Last week he wrote about the vasectomy he had 25 years ago, and how, given his marriage is no longer “open to life”, his union falls down on what the no campaign holds up as an ideal.
O’Toole cut to the heart of the no campaign’s problem. With posters saying “children deserve a mother and a father”, they have not just offended gay people, but also single parents, unmarried parents, people who were adopted, and so on. “In order to find an apparent principle on which it can reasonably deny equality to gay men and lesbians,” O’Toole wrote of the no campaign, “it has to tell huge numbers of other people that their relationships are just not up to scratch.”
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For the yes campaign, this final week is about galvanising support. And the no campaign is also throwing everything they have at it. At masses around Ireland over the weekend, letters were read out from bishops arguing against a yes vote. The no campaign has fought personal stories with abstract arguments, and become increasingly hardened in its messaging. Its latest poster reads: “Two men can’t replace a mother’s love.”
The referendum has been divisive in debate, but unifying in people power. On Saturday, the yes camp saw crowds of people canvassing across the country. Fundraising concerts and club nights have pulled in thousands of euros. The yes campaign is buoyed by support from children’s charities and an almost endless stream of unexpected voices, including Irish football captain Robbie Keane and the epitome of genteel rural Ireland, singer Daniel O’Donnell.
But there is anxiety as well as optimism. “Look at what happened in England,” came a warning to canvassers, called down a driveway by a woman in the suburbs of Dublin last week. Where Britain had shy Tories, campaigners here wonder about shy no voters.
The latest newspaper polls show between 53% and 67% in support of a yes vote. The Irish Times poll showed the yes side at 58%, no at 25%, and undecideds at 17%. Excluding those undecideds, the yes side is at 70% and no at 30%. As comfortable as it might look, that call down the driveway echoes. Polling for referendums is notoriously unreliable here. Six months before Ireland held a referendum allowing for divorce in 1995, support for a yes vote was at nearly 72%. The referendum passed by 0.6%.
Everything rests on those who say they support the issue turning out to vote. For me and many other gay people, the campaign has tested us almost to breaking point. But it has also been a time of wonderful solidarity. Whatever the outcome, there has been a real and irrevocable change in Irish society.

Irish artist plasters gay lovers on Dublin building to support country’s marriage equality referendum

13/04/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

BY NICOLE HENSLEY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, April 12, 2015, 9:40 PM A A A
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* North and South America Rights Only *
PreviousNext* North and South America Rights Only * Irish artist Joe Caslin and a crew installed the mural overnight Sunday on a busy street in Dublin as a message for Ireland’s upcoming marriage equality referendum. Enlarge
An image of two men embracing, plastered on the side of a Dublin building, is the work of an Irish artist one month before Ireland puts marriage equality to a vote.
The touching black and white homage takes up at least four stories in Dublin as a “poignant representation of same sex love in the city,” its artist, Joe Caslin, told the Journal.
Its new presence has couples flocking to the busy street below for selfies.
The country’s marriage equality referendum is the only one of its kind in the world. It asks voters to decide whether same-sex couples can marry.
While the same-sex marriage battle in the U.S. will rely on the Supreme Court’s decision in late June, Ireland’s case will be decided by voters on May 22.
The Irish referendum would add a clause to the country’s constitution that allows marriage to be contracted by two people “without distinction as to their sex.”
Caslin’s work, reportedly inspired by a 1864 painting “The Meeting on the Turret Stairs,” went up overnight Sunday with a crew working in the rain.
He expects additional urban LGBT art to pop up around the country’s capital including a mural paying tribute to a lesbian relationship.

A Christian Outlook

21/03/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

Posted by Emma Hyland – 20/03/2015 – The OutMostDUBLIN’S ARCHBISHOP CRITICISES “UNCHRISTIAN, OBNOXIOUS” LANGUAGE OF ‘NO’ CAMP

THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN HAS CRITICISED THOSE ARGUING FOR A NO VOTE IN MAY’S MARRIAGE REFERENDUM, FOR USING “UNCHRISTIAN” LANGUAGE TOWARDS GAY AND LESBIAN PEOPLE.

At ‘The Teaching of the Church on Marriage Today‘ discussion last night, Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin discussed marriage, family and children.
The Archbishop revealed that, in the lead-up to the referendum, he has received communication from No voters that is “not just intemperate but obnoxious, insulting and unchristian in regard to gay and lesbian people”.
At the talk, hosted by the Iona Institute, he warned those correspondents that using such language shows “that they have forgotten something essential about the Christian message”.
The Archbishop agrees with equality for gay people but does not agree with same-sex marriage. He said that achieving equality for gay and lesbian people does not mean that they should have equal marriage.
“There can be an ethic of equality, which is an ethic of recognising and respecting difference.”
Instead, Dr Martin suggested that an inclusive society could find ways in which gay people had their relationships recognised – without marriage – because heterosexual relationships are ‘unique’.
“I’m not saying that gay and lesbian people are unloving or that their love is somehow deficient compared to others, I am talking about a uniqueness in the male-female relationship,” he said.

The Archbishop also challenged the Children and Family Relationships Bill, as children are born biologically to one woman and one man.
“Even if it were possible to clone a child, that child would still bear the genetic imprint of a male and a female. Genetic parentage is not irrelevant,” he said.
He acknowledged, however, that people will rightly question why he can lecture on a theme about which he has no experience.
“I must be honest and say that I am also lacking in knowledge of more fundamental day-to-day realities of the sexual, marital or parental experiences in a family,” he said.
The Archbishop, earlier this month, refused to back the Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran following his controversial anti-gay comments, wherein he stated that gay parents of children are “not parents”.