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HomeTravelDUP leader Arlene Foster to meet with LGBT organisations - Belfast Live

DUP leader Arlene Foster to meet with LGBT organisations – Belfast Live

DUP leader Arlene Foster is set to meet with LGBT organisations “in the coming weeks”.

It will be first time a Stormont First Minister has met with representatives of the LGBT community.

The Executive Office confirmed the planned meeting, which will also involve Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill.

A spokeswoman told Belfast Live: “The First Minister and Deputy First Minister are planning to meet with representatives of the LGBTQI+ community in the coming weeks.”

The plans come after Mrs Foster was last month urged by the Green Party’s deputy leader to “reflect on” her lack of engagement.

Malachai O’Hara said in a Belfast Live interview the “time has long passed” for the First Minister to have sat down with LGBT groups.

The LGBT campaigner challenged Mrs Foster after she said it was “important that all communities have a voice in the political process”.

Mrs Foster made the remarks as she defended her meeting with the Loyalist Communities Council, a group representing loyalist paramilitaries, to discuss concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

A spokeswoman for the First Minister later said she was “open” to meeting with LGBT organisations.

The DUP has a long history of hostility towards the LGBT community, including its founder Ian Paisley leading the ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’ campaign in the late 1970s against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this month, Mrs Foster said she gets “very distressed” when she is referred to as homophobic.

The DUP leader was speaking during libel proceedings against a celebrity doctor who tweeted an unsubstantiated rumour that she had an affair.

Mrs Foster in 2018 became the first DUP leader to attend an LGBT event when she addressed a PinkNews reception at Stormont.

She said she valued the LGBT community’s contribution to Northern Ireland, but asked people to respect her opposition to same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage was legalised in Northern Ireland last year after Westminster intervened during the Assembly’s three-year collapse.

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