Can gay rights transform unnism and Northern Ireland? |

Contents:

• IT’S BEEN 40 YEARS SCE NORTHERN IRELAND’S HUMANISG GAY SEX BAN WAS FALLY STCK DOWN
• ANTI-GAY ATTUS NORTHERN IRELAND ARE CHANGG
• NORTHERN IRELAND UNR PRSURE AFTER IRISH GAY MARRIAGE REFERENDUM W
• GAY LIFE NORTHERN IRELAND IS UNR THREAT – TIME TO ACT
• 'NEW CULTURE WAR': NORTHERN IRELAND'S LGBT+ MUNY FIGHTS FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• RELIGN AND ATTUS TOWARDS GAY RIGHTS NORTHERN IRELAND: THE GOD GAP REVISED
• GAY IRELAND
• CAN GAY RIGHTS TRANSFORM UNNISM AND NORTHERN IRELAND?

IT’S BEEN 40 YEARS SCE NORTHERN IRELAND’S HUMANISG GAY SEX BAN WAS FALLY STCK DOWN

Harold McKee, a standard-bearer of unnism the Mourne Mountas, qu on October 30th, lamentg that gay marriage was unter to the “fallible word of God” Beattie says his live-and-let-live nvictns are born of three s of ary service Ai, the Balkans and Iraq, om which he learned that “people of all kds have a need to be rpected”. One pot of ictn, he says, was his belief that the party should move a progrsive directn, for example by supportg Gay Pri Thompson-McCormick, a gay wrer who liv England but had an Ulster Prottant upbrgg, spi a streak of pragmatism the DUP’s natural voters that he thks will eventually brg them around. Promisg the ernment would implement the “vast majory” of Etherton’s remendatns, Wallace said he would fully update the Commons a formal bate about the issue after the about pensatn, Wallace said he hoped to fd “an elegant solutn that match the need and the requirements of those dividuals”, promisg to set this out after Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, was among mpaigners who weled the apology.

Policians Northern Ireland will face tense prsure om LGBT rights mpaigners to “tch up” wh the rt of wtern Europe after the Irish Republic overwhelmgly backed same-sex marriage a Irish Congrs of Tra Unns will jo Amnty Internatnal and gay rights group the Rabow Project to hold a mass rally support of equal marriage rights on 13 June, while a legal tt se has also been lodged wh Belfast’s Friday’s historic referendum, which the Republic’s voters endorsed same-sex marriage by 2-1, Northern Ireland remas the last untry wtern Europe where LGBT upl are barred om gettg married [see footnote].

Attempts to legislate to allow gay marriage have been vetoed by the Democratic Unnist party and a majory of Ulster Unnists the volved Northern Ireland assembly at ICTU spokman said the regn need to tch up wh the rt of mocratic Europe – and particular every other part of the UK. Our unrstandg of the daily reali for LGBT people the UK do not emanate om a 14-year-old Motherwell, or a still-closeted retiree Penarth, but om metropolan profsnals pictg gay life om a turret of so we e to a blackout: a London-n media so placent about the liberal tim “we” live that snt verage has been voted to the human rights regrsn Northern Ireland, the potential removal of refully built-up legal protectn for gay we start at the top and work our way down? The first mister, Peter Robson, is backg a private member’s bill, troduced this week by Pl Givan (the DUP member of the legislative assembly), which seeks to troduce a “nscience clse” to equaly legislatn allowg bs to refe to serve gay people on “relig” DUP is the party that opposed the crimalisatn of homosexualy as recently as the 1980s and today ntu to block equal marriage, still illegal Northern Ireland, even after three attempts to troduce .

ANTI-GAY ATTUS NORTHERN IRELAND ARE CHANGG

The rults of a study to the wellbeg of LGBT people Northern Ireland last year found 47% had nsired suici, 25% had attempted , 35% had self-harmed and 71% had suffered qutn we are left wh then is why the DUP do not, will not, see the nnectn between the culture they seek to create and the 13-year-old boy stg his room, wrg his diary that he wants to kill himself bee he, wnsg the laws that do not protect him, and the protectn for those who hate him, feels this: for gay people like me there is no future. BELFAST (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Hidn away up several flights of stairs the center of Belfast, Northern Ireland, teenagers, many of them wh shocks of red, blue and rabow hair, relaxed and joked wh one the LGBT+ youth group, n by chary Cara-Friend, they felt themselv to be among iends, ee to be outsi, the young people said they don’t always feel wele a place where many policians make homophobic ments and same-sex marriage is still banned, spe beg legalized the rt of the Uned Kgdom 2013.

NORTHERN IRELAND UNR PRSURE AFTER IRISH GAY MARRIAGE REFERENDUM W

”Northern Ireland is erned separately om the rt of the Uned Kgdom on many issu, a legacy of the domtic nflict between “republin” and “unnist” groups over whether to une wh the Republic of Ireland to the Democratic Unnist Party (DUP), one of the most socially nservative Europe, has repeatedly blocked gay marriage, spe support for om more than two-thirds of Northern Irish adults, acrdg to a 2015 poll by Ipsos year, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to legalize same-sex weddgs, but the DUP blocked g a veto tend to protect mory Brish ernment has refed to impose gay marriage on the regn, which had a populatn of 1.

’”Nairn, who is himself gay, said was “crazy” same-sex marriage was not yet legal, an terview at the Unn Street Bar Belfast’s small gay district, where he ed to work, often drsed as a drag queen lled year, two legal challeng to the same-sex marriage ban were heard Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal, the regn’s hight appeals urt, after beg rejected by s High judgments are expected the next few months, but activists said they will appeal them to the Uned Kgdom’s Supreme Court if same-sex marriage isn’t also expect Northern Ireland’s attorney general to appeal if the lg go the other way.

GAY LIFE NORTHERN IRELAND IS UNR THREAT – TIME TO ACT

But gay marriage is now legal the south of Ireland, after a referendum 10 years ago, no Northern Irish party supported LGBT+ rights, Jefey Dudgeon, a Belfast cy uncillor for the Ulster Unnist Party told the Thomson Rters Foundatn an terview the imposg Victorian-era Cy Hall. “Every time ’s been a stggle and ’s aga bee of volutn, ” said Dudgeon, one of the platiffs a 1981 European Court of Human Rights se that legalized gay sex Northern Ireland, 14 years after the rt of the Uned recent years, LGBT+ rights have bee a dividg issue Northern Irish Fe now supports LGBT+ rights, spe s Catholic herage.

“We are danger of unrmg a basic buildg block of society to meet the mands of a ty mory, ” said Jim Wells, who rigned as health mister 2015 after sayg children of same-sex parents were more likely to be, a DUP polician who nied beg homophobic, expects his party will ntue to e s veto agast same-sex marriage when Northern Ireland’s parliament do return, he said emailed fact that many unnists want to both rema part of the Uned Kgdom, unr s laws, and reject same-sex marriage, which is legal the rt of the untry, is not lost on Northern Ireland’s LGBT+ muny. In fact, some mentators go so far as to suggt that public disput and related urt battl over homosexual rights have now replaced abortn as the most signifint and divisive moral issue wh many ntemporary wtern dtrialized societi (see Wilx 2007; Raysi 2007; Badgett 2009). Recent legislative activy suggts that not only will the issue of gay rights rema on the public agenda for some time to e, as pro- and anti-gay lobbyists seek to advance their var posns, but this appears to be particularly the se when the qutn of gay marriage is nsired.

While the issue of gay rights has not generated as much legislative activy across Europe, few would dispute that important legal chang have occurred this area recent years, particularly relatn to gay marriage and civil partnerships (see Takacs and Szalma 2011). For example, currently, six European natns – the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Spa (2005), Norway (2008), Swen (2009), Portugal (2010) and Iceland (2010) – legally regnize same-sex marriag, and seventeen untri, now allow registered partnerships as a legal optn for same-sex upl, one of the most recent beg Ireland which legalized civil unns among gay upl 2011. Footnote 2 Moreover, among those untri that have legalized same-sex marriag or civil partnerships, ten also perm same-sex adoptns, albe wh varyg many other European natns, same-sex sexual relatns for mal and femal aged 16 years or over is legal both Great Bra and Northern Ireland and, sce the 2004 Civil Partnership Act, gay upl have been legally entled to engage civil partnerships the UK.

'NEW CULTURE WAR': NORTHERN IRELAND'S LGBT+ MUNY FIGHTS FOR GAY MARRIAGE

For example, not only have both Anglin and Catholic relig thori spoken out strongly agast the adoptn rights of gay and lbian upl but they also sought exemptns to the 2009 Equaly Bill, which beme law April 2010, such as the prohibn of gay or lbian dividuals workg relig schools.

RELIGN AND ATTUS TOWARDS GAY RIGHTS NORTHERN IRELAND: THE GOD GAP REVISED

Footnote 5 This is not to disunt, however, some ongog and notable divisns wh the Anglin Church relatn to this issue, particularly when the qutn of gay bishops civil partnerships are nsired, Footnote 6 as well as the creasgly vol opposn, particularly by the Catholic Church, relatn to the proposed bill to allow both civil and relig same-sex marriage ceremoni Stland.

(2006) note, while a good al of rearch has been nducted about the relatnship between relign and public opn about attus towards homosexualy, much of the analysis is based on small surveys and has been rtricted eher by geography or by the typ of people clud (often llege stunts).

Furthermore, even when attus toward marriage and adoptn rights are nsired, to date, not only have the vast majory of studi been rtricted to the Uned Stat but they have tend to vtigate the rights terms of a bary posn, parg those who hold a negative opn relatn to the issu vers those who do is wh the omissns md that this chapter foc on the impact of relign on attus towards same-sex sexual relatns and the adoptn and marriage rights of gay upl. By cludg such a diversy of measur, this vtigatn not only marks the first systematic analysis of relign and public opn towards gay rights this society but also allows to vtigate the fluence of each of the var relign measur on public opn about gay marriag and adoptn rights – two issu that are central to current bat about gay rights wh ntemporary dtrialized societi.

GAY IRELAND

Fally, ntrary to prev rearch, attus towards same-sex sexual relatns and gay rights are pared terms of three tegori of opn: those who hold a negative view of this issue; those who don’t know or hold a ntral posn; and those who adopt a posive or supportive stance terms of their e of Northern Ireland as a se study to vtigate this issue may be nsired appropriate for the followg three reasons. In fact, as recently as 2008, Iris Robison, who was then a member of both the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Hoe of Commons and who scrib herself as a “born aga” Christian, ed much ntroversy when she said that homosexualy was an “abomatn” that ma her feel “sick” (see Duggan 2012).

CAN GAY RIGHTS TRANSFORM UNNISM AND NORTHERN IRELAND?

For example, a recent survey nducted by the Equaly Commissn for Northern Ireland – the 2011 Equaly Awarens Survey – found that jt over a quarter of rponnts would object to havg a gay or bisexual neighbor and four ten would object to a close relative formg a relatnship wh a gay or bisexual person. For example, the three time perds which the survey was nducted, the proportn of rponnts who objected to a close relative formg a relatnship wh a gay or bisexual person rose om 29% 2005 to 35% 2008, and further creased to 42% 2011 (see Equaly Commissn for Northern Ireland 2011: 21).

Fally, unlike many other European societi where the troductn of legislatn support of gay rights has been the rult of wispread ternal public prsure om s cizens wh their natnal borrs, much of the impet for the troductn of legalisatn ncerng same-sex issu has e om outsi Northern Ireland society.

Footnote 10 Even the Methodist Church, which advot unrstandg and tolerance towards gay people, ed wispread outrage and disquiet September 2011, when rejected a male volunteer and long-standg member of the church to work on a youth project light of his sexual preferenc.