LGBT News Northern Ireland - Gay Marriage Debate

Not meaning to cause offence to anybody, but I've always thought of Northern Ireland to be quite a strange country, particularly when it comes to social issues. England and Wales, and even Scotland to an extent, are much more progressive. Here in the Republic of Ireland, homosexuality is largely a non-issue and polls show enormous levels of support for same sex marriage, around 75% (a referendum is planned for late 2014 or early 2015, it's widely expected that it will very comfortably secure the majority of votes and become law). I find it odd that they are so far behind.

 

What is the UUP's stance on gay marriage?

 

The main issue with the NI Assembly is your dealing with deeply religious people who've been trying to kill one another for the last 50 years and then thrusting them together at a negotiating table. Often even the most trivial of matters take a long time to get thru as they are often hijacked for political purposes. None of the factions want to look weak or like they're conceding anything to the other side. Also bear in mind that in NI disorder erupts very easily and often very trivial reasons result in rioting.

For example this year there was rioting across Belfast by loyalists (people who want to remain part of the uk (almost all are Protestants)) over the fact that the Belfast City Council decided not to fly the union jack from the town hall.

This was a rather trivial matter, but think what gay marriage legalisation might cause.

In short there probably really isn't the political will or the willingness to run the risk of inciting disorder for this to happen anytime soon.

Saying that it may be possible that they may be forced by the courts to change the law.

The thing is with NI is it's one baby step at a time, despite the peace agreement people from both the catholic and Protestant communities often feel hostile to one another and large walls separate the two continue to be errected. It cost taxpayers millions to fund "duplicate" services for example in Belfast there are two leisure centres virtually next door one catholic and one Protestant.

So even when people of the same race and background can't come together it's difficult to see how homophobia can be stopped.

Still, change is inevitable and eventually they won't be able to drag their heels any more..

 

Yeah, I'm not gonna claim to understand how NI politics work (which is pretty bad considering lots of my friends come from there and it's just 100km over the sea from me), but it really seems to be in a nigh-on hundred years stalemate, even with the Good Friday agreement bringing relative peace. Like, gun laws are far less strict than in the rest of the UK not because Northern Ireland are necessarily more backwards, but because the parliament doesn't work so efficiently.

 

I just want all this debate to end. We're humans too, we deserve rights. I can't wait until we can all settle on a good decision and live peacefully. That's all I want (being Irish myself).

 

As a new student in Northern Ireland I did fear that due to the very "religious" atmosphere around here, I may have problems when other students realized I was gay. But as of yet I haven't had any issues, it seems that the younger generation here (at least those at University level) are quite supportive of LGBT rights and often have an LGBT friend anyway. As I figured it'd be touchy I've not debated local politics with oh so many people, but with those I have they just seem fed up with the conflict and wish people could get along better. I've seen a couple of small loyalist protests and have heard about numerous "bomb scares" (which are usually not a bomb, hence the scare, though I have heard of some bombs being found) but otherwise not much.

There seem to be a lot more devoutly religious people, i.e. people who attend church much more regularly than the vast majority of people I know in England, probably because they feel they have to defend their beliefs or they're just more dedicated, I don't know, perhaps it's true of the Republic as well. I generally haven't brought up gay marriage with people I know to be religious though so I'm not sure of their opinions there, plus it just doesn't often come up in conversation anyway, I'm sure they'd be fine talking about it. Those who I have talked to seem to be good with it.