Unlike Ireland, Northern Ireland is still engaged in US style "culture wars" on gay marriage

[pnwmom]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/22/northern-ireland-watchful-eye-gay-marriage-referendum-ireland

“If, as seems likely, the referendum passes, then Northern Ireland will be the only region in these islands where same-sex marriages are neither conducted nor recognised,” he said.

“This not only creates legal anomalies whereby a person’s relationship is reclassified as a civil partnership with their consent when they come from other parts of the UK or Ireland but actively incentivises LGBT people to leave Northern Ireland in search of a more welcoming home in other places,” he added.

Unlike in the rest of the UK, issues such as gay rights and marriage equality in Northern Ireland resemble the “culture wars” struggles in the US between liberals and born-again Christians, with many of the latter wielding influence on the Republican party.

The region is the only part of the UK where the Department of Health maintains a ban on gay men donating blood to the local NHS because the DUP has repeatedly taken up this ministry in the power-sharing government.

DUP health ministers past and present along with their leader, Peter Robinson, the first minister, have also demonstrated strong support for many Evangelical Christian causes. They backed a bakery firm’s refusal to bake a pro-gay marriage themed cake. A court in Belfast earlier this week ruled that the family-run Ashers Bakery was guilty of discrimination.

[MADem]

1. People supportive of marriage equality would do well to leave the Occupied Territories (cough)

and seek their fortunes in the south!