Gay rights

Ashers: A Long Running Saga Is About To End…

Stephen Donnan-Dalzell on January 5, 2022, 11:37 am

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I don’t need to rehash the entire timeline of the Lee v Ashers Baking Company suffice to say that the issue has plagued both the human rights, and the LGBT sector since 2014. I was somewhat involved in the originating event that sparked the entire mishegas, a simple celebratory event held in Bangor Town Hall, hosted by then Mayor Andrew Muir (now MLA for North Down) for Queerspace – a long-running LGBT organisation based in Belfast that has been at …

The authoritarian, moralistic worldview of the DUP is not made for real life and so real people are leaving it, and them, behind…

Kellie Turtle on April 30, 2021, 7:22 am

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In the last 24 hours, I’ve been asked for my thoughts on the possibility that changes in the DUP signal a ‘lurch to the right’, as someone engaged in the campaign for reproductive rights. There is no doubt that the idea of the most socially conservative Christian fundamentalists taking a firmer grip of the wheel of the largest party in the north is concerning to anyone who believes in human rights, equality and social justice. Their reputation on issues that …

We have an Urgent Duty to LGBTQ+ people in this country…

Soapbox on July 5, 2019, 11:07 am

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Today I had two experiences that have deeply disturbed me. The first was to listen to Jim Wells MLA on the BBC Nolan Show and the second to read former MLA Nelson McCausland’s article about a ‘flood of transgenderism’ in the Belfast Telegraph. Both contributions displayed appalling ignorance as to the reality of lives for LGBTQ+ people in this country. I am in my 30’s and came out when I was 17. At that time, there were many more voices …

Should Queen’s University break its link with The Presbyterian Union Theological College?

Brian O'Neill on June 12, 2018, 4:44 pm

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There has been a public backlash against the perceived anti-LGBTQ policies of the Presbyterian Church. Many people have left the church over it, and many more are considering their position. The writer Tony Macaulay and his wife Leslie have left the church after more than 50 years of membership, and decades of inspiring service. Tony was a youth worker for the Presbyterian Church on a violent interface during some of the most dangerous years of the Troubles. Their daughter is …

It’s not just about Marriage – or how the Executive parties have failed to deliver for LGBTQ people in Northern Ireland.

Soapbox on August 4, 2017, 5:22 pm

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This week is the week of Belfast Pride. It is the 26th year of a festival that has grown to huge proportions. Little did the pioneers of 1991 (who were outnumbered by protestors), think that we would have come so far. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer equality is now firmly in the mainstream. One of the greatest indicators of that being Cameron’s Tories bringing forward Equal Marriage in 2013. There has been huge progress on LGBTQ liberation over those …

The Catholic church flounders again over sexuality within

Brian Walker on August 13, 2016, 6:59 pm

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You couldn’t make it up. The decision of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin to remove his diocese’s ( only) three trainees from St Patrick’s Maynooth and pack then off to the comparative safety of Rome (!), because of a “poisonous atmosphere” surrounding allegations about the use of a gay dating app in the College, is more farce than tragedy – or would be, if the seminarians are as worldly – wise as most young people are these days. To this …

Gay rights campaigner Tatchell switches to support gay cake appeal

Brian Walker on February 2, 2016, 7:56 pm

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Peter Tatchell no less, who is second only to Jeff Dudgeon as a gay rights campaigner, will have given some comfort to those who although they support gay rights have qualms about the legal finding against Asher’s the bakers. On the eve of the Asher’s appeal, Tatchell has changed his mind. Jeff had reservations about the case from the start. When it comes to Ashers and the cake, I don’t think there was ever any intention to start that dispute. …

“Gay cake” case may prompt top level legal rethink

Brian Walker on July 12, 2014, 12:05 pm

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The life story of Andrew Muir, the mayor of North Down is part of Northern Ireland’s long journey towards civilisation – including the fact that as an openly gay person he made it to mayor at all. It was his Bangor reception that sparked the Great Cake Discrimination Case. Even so, the case may not be open and shut as it seems. The law is reckoned to be unsatisfactory. There is a legal debate which hinges on whether discrimination is …

Welcome to The [Gay] Central [Bar] in Strabane…

Mick Fealty on March 26, 2014, 8:18 pm

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THE MOST REMOTE GAY BAR IN THE UK v2 from Vik Patel on Vimeo. Until the video owner sets the permissions to allow his video to be embedded on Slugger’s domain, here’s the shorter Channel 4 report: How tackle homophobia? Just opening gay bars, one at time.. A life affirming film from Anna Leach and Vik Patel… with a H/T to Channel Four News Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the …

United Ireland’s struggle against gay rights wins RTE damages

Brian Walker on February 4, 2014, 6:45 pm

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Is it defamatory to accuse opponents of same sex marriage of homophobia? Or are they fairly exercising their consciences in declining to recognise equality with heterosexuals? Irish Times columnists are on opposite sides of an argument which is part of the Republic’s slow emergence into the modern era. Sadly though the columnists haven’t gone head to head over it yet; let’s hope they do. The issue arose when John Waters and Breda O’Brien, both Irish Times columnists as it …

Equal marriage – how long will Northern Ireland’s gay couples have to wait?

Patrick Corrigan on September 27, 2012, 12:23 pm

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When David Hockney published his etching In the dull village in 1967, the UK government was busy passing the Sexual Offences Act to (partially) decriminalise homosexuality in England and Wales. It was another fifteen years before Northern Ireland caught up – with the passage of the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982, and that was only after Jeff Dudgeon took a case to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2012 the campaign for LGBT equality has moved on. …

Civil Rights hero receives a belated honour…

Mick Fealty on May 17, 2012, 12:05 pm

| Readers 49

Nice turn of phrase from former Tory MP Matthew Parris in The Times today… Struggles produce heroes whose names fade after their cause prevails, but Mr [Jeffrey] Dudgeon’s should never be forgotten: the Beflast shipping clerk who – because homosexuality remained a criminal offence in Northern Ireland – took the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights (boo!) and won (hooray!). Westminster changed the law two decades ago and in the last New Years honours Mr Dudgeon was …