The Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s biggest party, sent a representative to an LGBT event for the first time last week.
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In a move perhaps more unexpected than Martin McGuinness shaking the hand of the Queen, the Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s biggest party, sent a representative to an LGBT event for the first time last week.
A low-key announcement was made on Monday evening by organisers of the Belfast Pride Festival that a DUP representative was to attend the annual ‘Pride Talks Back’ political debate the following night.
The DUP’s “near pathological obsession with homosexuality” needs little introduction – but here’s a very quick rundown…
DUP representatives at various times have claimed:
• Homosexuality is ‘repulsive’;
• It is ‘akin to child abuse’,
• It can be ‘cured’;
• Hurricane Katrina was ‘sent by god to punish gay people’, and, perhaps most bizarrely (though it’s a tough contest);
• Having a gay rugby team is a ‘form of apartheid’.
So, as you might imagine, there was some anticipation as to who the DUP might end up sending to the event. It turned out to be Gavin Robinson, the 27-year-old Lord Mayor of Belfast, who was elected a Belfast city councillor last year.
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At Belfast’s Europa Hotel, six of the Assembly parties are represented, but Robinson is everyone’s silent focus. Every party representative speaks in favour of equal marriage, the first topic – apart from Robinson, who explained his party’s opposition in Biblical terms.
Other representatives had just made comments about certain parties seeking to ‘own’ the equal marriage issue.
Robinson wisely starts with a joke that breaks some of the tension with soft laughter:
“As you might be aware, this isn’t an issue that my party has sought to claim ownership of…”
He stresses his friendships with many in the room. He is calm, lucid and performs well on this first question. His response reminds you more of Owen Paterson’s opposition to equal marriage than the furious, hysterical pronouncements by other DUP representatives.
Of course, when they spoke, they didn’t have a few hundred LGBT people and their supporters sitting in front of them.
So began an interesting night where the focus was very much on Robinson. John O’Doherty, director of The Rainbow Project, asked him if he would distance himself from the views of his colleagues. Unfortunately, this question was dodged almost entirely, but when pressed to answer, he simply said “I believe in freedom of speech” – to some audible disappointment from the audience.
When asked of his feelings on Civil Partnerships, he stated bluntly:
“It’s the law of the land.”
As most of Robinson’s answers revolved around Christianity, a memorable moment came when a gay Christian stood up and asserted, to applause, that he believed:
“If Christ were alive, he’d be marching with us on Saturday [at the Belfast Pride Parade].”
Ruth McCarthy, director of the Outburst Queer Arts Festival, stated that, despite initial hopes:
“You broke my heart a wee bit, Gavin – I thought the DUP was changing. I was wrong.”
She hit the nail on the head squarely when she stated:
“The attitudes that you and your party are propagating are quite simply damaging people’s mental health.”
Still, it has to be said Robinson was calm and respectful despite his drastically differing beliefs. His presence, of course, was a move taken with obvious reluctance by the DUP – recognition of the fact their position is becoming more and more untenable. And now they’ve attended once, they will be expected to attend year-on-year.
Never before have the DUP been grilled so publicly and in such a detailed way about LGBT issues. This could be a first, small sign of a DUP détente towards Northern Ireland’s long-suffering LGBT community; long may it continue.
The DUP still have a long way to go, but you have to give it to them – they did turn up.
4 Responses to “More history in Northern Ireland: DUP attend LGBT event for first time”
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