DUP representatives on Belfast City Council were given a free vote on a motion on Tuesday night calling for a ban on gay conversion therapy.
t marks a step-change for the party and comes just a week after a similar motion was passed in the Assembly — with the majority of DUP MLAs voting against it on faith grounds.
Outgoing DUP leader Arlene Foster and four others, including Executive ministers Peter Weir and Diane Dodds, abstained. It is thought this agitated the party’s fundamentalist wing and contributed to her downfall.
Tuesday night’s motion was proposed by the Green Party’s Anthony Flynn and the SDLP’s Seamus de Faoite, who are both gay.
It called on the council to write to the Communities Minister to express: Support for a legislative ban on conversion therapy in all its forms before the end of the current Assembly mandate; that there should be no special exemptions for religious organisations in implementing a ban on conversion therapy; and that any ban should clearly distinguish from safe and supportive therapies, delivered by suitable qualified and regulated professionals, that assist people to explore and better understand their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.
“Often at times this debate is pitted as ‘the gays versus the Christians’, or other religious institutions, and we’ve seen this before — because it suits a certain agenda,” Mr Flynn said.
“And that agenda is the complete and utter erasure of queer people from our society, and that needs to be challenged.
“It’s a self-defeating agenda, because it disregards the millions of LGBQ people who are people of faith and hold their faith as primary to their being.”
Fellow Green Party councillor Mal O’Hara, who is also gay, said he wanted to outlaw the “misguided quackery” of conversion therapy.
The DUP’s David Brooks said: “I want to speak very clearly in saying that my party is against conversion therapy, that I am against conversion therapy… it is not therapy and is repugnant to me.
“From a faith point of view, I believe in a God that gives us free will… as a member of the reformed faith, I believe each individual has the right to read the holy scriptures and interpret them for themselves. In my opinion, the church has handled LGBT issues poorly in the past.
“ Equally, it has been well reported that, historically, members of our party have made comments that were wrong, unhelpful to their arguments, soundbites that were needlessly derogatory or offensive in their nature. I regret that. But we cannot rule out all forms of [conversion therapy] and rule out exceptions for faith groups without outlining what we are banning in specific terms. Our party group will have a free vote on this issue.”
Mr de Faoite stressed the motion was not about criminalising prayer, it was about “limiting the harm caused to LGBT people by these torturous therapies”.
“LGBT youth here are eight times more likely to be suicidal, six times more likely to report high levels of depression and three times more likely to use drugs. Have queer kids not suffered enough?” he said.
The motion went to a vote, with 39 in favour, three against and 10 abstentions. The three ballots against the motion were cast by DUP representatives, as were the 10 abstentions.
Belfast Telegraph
