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Showing posts with the label Democratic Unionists

Another defeat for gay ‘marriage’ in Northern Ireland

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BELFAST , Northern Ireland , May 5, 2014–– Once again, a measure to introduce same-sex “marriage” into Northern Ireland has failed, making it the only jurisdiction in Great Britain to have resisted the trend to redefine the institution of marriage. It is the third time in the past 18 months that the Northern Ireland Assembly has rejected same-sex “marriage” legislation. The bill was last introduced in the Northern Ireland Assembly last April, when it lost by a 53-42 vote. Six months before that, in October 2012, it lost 50-42. Northern Ireland's Assembly The Sinn Féin Party introduced the motion, which was supported by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The Ulster Unionists and Democratic Unionists opposed it. Sinn Fein currently holds 29 of the Assembly’s 108 seats, while the Democratic Unionists hold 38. The Unionist parties have been aided by both the Anglican Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church , which have both made statements in favor of m...

Marriage campaigners must talk about harms of homosexuality or lose the fight: Belfast campaigner

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BELFAST,  – Defenders of traditional marriage in Northern Ireland and elsewhere are going to continue to lose ground, even among their own constituency of conservative Christians , until they start talking about the realities and harms of homosexual behavior , one of Belfast ’s leading pro-life and family advocates has said. “No one is putting forward an effective defense of marriage” without mentioning this issue, said Liam Gibson, Northern Ireland office of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children . “We’ll continue to lose numbers until we do, but whether anyone has the courage do to that is a different matter.” Campaigners for traditional marriage definitions have almost uniformly restricted themselves to lauding the institution as a source of social stability and an ideal environment to raise children, and shied away from critiquing homosexuality itself. And this embarrassment and fear of talking about what homosexual acts actually are crippling the effor...

Amnesty International seeks to force Homosexual Marriage

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Amnesty International and a Northern Irish homosexualist campaign group, Rainbow Project , have announced plans to collaborate in an effort to create legalised gay “marriage” in the province through the courts. The two groups have vowed to bring a human rights legal action against the Northern Ireland government “on the basis of inferior treatment of same sex couples in Northern Ireland with regards to the right to marry and found a family.” As with the 1967 Abortion Act , Northern Ireland would be exempt from Westminster’s same-sex “marriage” bill that was passed in the House of Commons in February but is still in committee in the House of Lords . Patrick Corrigan, program director for Amnesty in Northern Ireland, told the Guardian newspaper that a lawsuit is “inevitable” because international law is “clear” that individual territories must provide marriage if the rest of the country does. So far, Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party , the Alliance and Gr...

Northern Irish Assembly rejects ‘gay marriage’ motion

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Latest New Member in East Belfast Welcomed (Photo credit: DUP Photos ) BELFAST, October 10 2012,  (LifeSiteNews.com)  - The Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland rejected on October 1 a move to install “gay marriage” in the province. The private member’s motion was put forward by the far-left Green Party and republican party Sinn Fein. The Green’s only representative in Stormont, Steven Agnew , said it would be message to homosexuals that “we see their love as equal”. The motion was soundly defeated by the dominant Democratic Unionists (DUP), only three of whose 45 members voted in favour. 45 of the total of 95 Members, 47.37 per cent, voted in favour, including 37 Nationalists, 3 DUP, and 5 “others” according to the government’s information. The motion could not have made a change in the marriage law that has to be ratified in the province by Westminster. But the BBC and other observers noted that had it passed, it would have increased pressure in Stormont to a...