Realists know DUP must change, but pace is glacial

Suzanne Breen

'Foster is meeting with local LGBTQ organisations in the coming weeks. It's a welcome move, although some may see it as too little, too late.' (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA)

April 26 2021 10:30 PM

Whisper it quietly: Arlene Foster's party is softening its stance on gay rights. "In 10 years' time we'll likely have a DUP Deputy First Minister opening Belfast Pride," jokes one LGBTQ activist.

His quip is laced with cynicism. This is snail's pace progress based on the realisation by the smarter people in the DUP that they lost the argument long ago. Plus they know their days of being the biggest bloc in Stormont are numbered.

For years now it's been a balancing act. Foster, herself a pragmatist, has been trying to keep a coalition together of the old-style fundamentalists and the more progressive elements. The latter still believe in "saving Ulster from sodomy", they just mask it in more sophisticated language these days.

Jim Wells claims DUP pressure over gay conversion therapy vote amid party ‘mass rebellion’

Veteran politician Jim Wells says the leadership wanted MLAs to abstain on an Assembly motion last week banning conversion therapy, but a backbench rebellion prevented that.

He says the party then hoped the resolution would slip through without a vote, and that the five party members intending to abstain would not be recorded. That didn't happen, and Foster, Economy Minister Diane Dodds, Education Minister Peter Weir, and MLAs Paula Bradley and Pam Cameron, did not record a vote.

The problem for the leadership is that by trying to straddle two horses, it's pleasing nobody.

Fundamentalists are uneasy at any ground conceded, and may well switch to Jim Allister's (very) Traditional Unionist Voice.

The defeated DUP amendment to the conversion therapy motion sought to remove a section saying "it is fundamentally wrong to view our LGBTQ community as requiring a fix or cure".

This understandably incensed equality campaigners.

If the DUP is trying to halt the drift of its younger, more moderate voters to Alliance, then moves like this hardly help.

Foster is meeting with local LGBTQ organisations in the coming weeks. It's a welcome move, although some may see it as too little, too late.

The UUP is miles ahead of its rival in terms of building bridges with the gay community. The DUP may be reading the runes, but it's not playing catch-up quickly enough.

Amnesty International's Patrick Corrigan says: "In 2018, the Love Equality campaign met a DUP delegation led by Edwin Poots. It was a disappointing affair.

"They would not even commit to stop using the petition of concern to block marriage equality.

"But, as with equal marriage, the DUP are firmly on the losing side on all these issues. I think the wiser members of the party have now realised this."

While the party can still use its veto at Stormont to block progress on LGBTQ rights or abortion, Corrigan adds: "Every time it does so, it chips away at the credibility of the devolved institutions themselves. People ask me what's the point of Stormont if it can't be trusted to uphold rights enjoyed everywhere else in these islands. That's not a good look."

Realists know DUP must change, but pace is glacial

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