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Northern Ireland refuses to budge on same-sex marriage

by Tim Gibson

Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK where same-sex marriage is illegal. The area has been without a government since January 2017 as battling parties Sinn Fein and the DUP have yet to reach a power sharing deal. This leaves the issue of equal marriage in a state of limbo. LGBT+ campaigners in the region have directly asked the British government to intervene.

The UK government’s Northern Ireland Secretary, Karen Bradley, has turned down such pleas, telling the Belfast Telegraph that “I am a supporter of same-sex marriage, I voted for it, but that is a matter for the people of Northern Ireland and that’s a decision that needs to be taken by the people elected by the people of Northern Ireland. I am not here to impose any of those things, I am here to help facilitate a government of the people of Northern Ireland, the representatives of the people of Northern Ireland delivering for the people of Northern Ireland.”

Sinn Fein, for their part, have demanded this issue be resolved and same-sex couples be allowed to marry, as they have been in the rest of the country since 2014. “I see young people who will not tolerate their peers being treated as second-class citizens because of their sexuality,” leader of the Sinn Fein party, Michelle O’Neill, has said, “I see civic society standing up to be counted and demanding their rights and entitlements are protected and enshrined on the same basis as they are elsewhere on these islands.”

It may, however, be many years until marriage is legalised if the two parties remain at a stalemate.

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