Homophobia Acceptable In Anti-Rights Assembly
DUP assembly member and minister in the Six County executive Ian Paisley Jr has escaped censure from the assembly’s ombudsman following a recent tirade against the gay and lesbian community. In May this year, Paisley was quoted in the national entertainment magazine, Hot Press, as saying he “hated” the ‘actions’ of homosexuals.
Paisley said: “I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism. I think it is wrong.
“I think that those people harm themselves and - without caring about it - harm society.”
The failure to take action against a junior minister in the supposedly equality-proofed Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers will raise serious doubts about the ability of the Six County executive to effectively progress a human rights agenda.
The DUP has successfully fought a rear-guard action against any form of social or political change since the reestablishment of Britain’s Stormont institutions, ably assisted by the veto their ministers have been granted.
Éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson drew attention to the long established anti-equality credentials of the DUP.
“This backward attitude comes as no surprise to those familiar with the history of the DUP, one of the most right-wing parties to ever hold ministerial office in Europe.”
“Paisley Jr’s comments should not be seen as out-of-hand remarks. They are part of a long-established strategy that has seen the DUP successfully overcome calls to prioritise rights legislation in the form of a single equality bill. This homophobic agenda has led the DUP to support court challenges against the most basic equality legislation. The failure of the body that is supposed to hold assembly members to account to take any action against Paisley is further evidence of the continuing rotten core at the heart of Six County politics.”
Leeson continued,
“The ethos of discrimination and bigotry within Stormont continues as strongly today as at any point from the creation of the sectarian Six County statelet. With people like Paisley and his colleagues in positions of power, the Six Counties will continue to be based on institutionalising hatred and bias and should be opposed at every opportunity.”