Last Friday morning I woke up angry. Very angry. And not just because I hate mornings, and I had to start work three hours early.
No, the DUP had done it again, and this time it was Jim Wells, saying something even more stupid than that time he said Creationism was real and not just a complete fairytale invented by people who didn’t have science to explain the creation of the world.
No, he said that children who grew up raised by homosexuals were more likely to be abused. He followed that up by denying that he ever said it, until a video came out showing him saying exactly that. And then he said that he didn’t really mean it.
After that, he said that the reason he had said this untrue, defamatory thing about a minority group was because he had just come from the hospital. Now, I have every sympathy for the fact that his wife isn’t well but I find it pretty disgusting that he uses that as an excuse to say bigoted, ugly and defamatory things about a protected minority group.
I saw the petition for him to resign as Health Minister, and I said to myself, that won’t work. The DUP are Teflon™. They get away with anything. And sure enough Friday morning up pops Mr Robinson saying that they’re going to stand by their man.
The amount of bigotry in the DUP is terrifying. It runs through the very core of the party and is dressed up as religiosity. There are so many incidences and they are well documented so I won’t go to the trouble of listing them here (those who want to read about their record on gay rights issues can do so here
https://stevedonnan.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/all-the-times-the-dup-stood-up-for-the-gays/)
but I do want to say this: it’s time to take a brillo pad to the Teflon™ DUP. Scrub it right off. Make sure that they know that people are getting sick of their bullshit.
The Westminster elections might not create much of a change in the way that Northern Ireland is governed, but it is an opportunity to show people that you have opinions and you want to voice them. It’s an opportunity to say no to bigotry and yes to equality. An opportunity to say no to sectarianism and yes to change.* To show the DUP that in 2016 when we vote in a new Assembly, it might just not look the same.
So please. Get out there and vote in numbers.
If you’re gay, you shouldn’t be voting for the DUP.
If you have a gay relative, you shouldn’t be voting for the DUP.
If you have a gay friend, you shouldn’t be voting for the DUP.
If you have a gay colleague, you shouldn’t be voting for the DUP.
Hang on. How on earth is there anyone still voting for the DUP?
Even the DUP shouldn’t be voting for the DUP.
* I will be voting for the Alliance Party, because I believe in their policies and anyone who will stand for non-sectarianism in Northern Ireland has my vote. I am not in any way affiliated with the Alliance Party.
CHATTER 