| Home - News - Scene - Links - Poll - Film - Pictures - Search - Site Map - Forum - Contact |
 |
 |
GAY BELFAST NEWS for August 2005
Link to Latest News: Click Here
Link to Main Archive News Page: Click Here
Link to 2005 Archive News Page: Click Here
Gay PSNI Officers offered support (22 August 2005)
Northern Ireland's police force is attempting to help support gay officers better, by offering facilities used to help foster better diversity. The facilities - at present a room in Belfast's Garnerville Training College - will be the first time gay officers have been offered a place to discuss issues affecting their work. It will also be available to members of the Ethnic Minority Police Association, according to press reports. Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said the facilities were long overdue. "Northern Ireland does not do a great deal to support the gay community," he said in a Press Association quote. "It's very difficult for gay people to come out and make a statement, and it's the same for police officers." The move comes as Northern Ireland's officers are pushed to be more aware of the importance of diversity. Following on from an increase in reported anti-gay and racially motivated attacks, the force is facing renewed pressure to tackle hate crimes and present itself as a modern and inclusive institution. "Diversity to me is not just about being correct, it's about making a difference," Leighton said.
Westlife star comes out (19 August 2005)Westlife star Mark Feehily has announced he is gay, and that he is in a relationship with Kevin McDaid a former pornstar at www.ladstrip.co.uk (photos available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KevinMcDaid) and boyband member of V. Feehily, who is one of the Irish chart topping act’s founding members, made the announcement today in the Sun newspaper, saying he is happy with his sexuality. He added that he is not looking to act as a role model for other gay men. "I am gay and I'm very proud of who I am. I'm not asking for any sympathy or to be a role model to anyone else." he said The Westlife star says his friends and family are supportive of his sexuality and that he is in a long-term relationship. He has been seeing Kevin McDaid and is in a long-term relationship with the singer, according to the press report. "My close friends and family, the people I love, have been incredibly supportive to me and that's what really matters." Westlife are currently the biggest boyband in Europe, repeatedly hitting the top spot of both single and album charts. Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast Forum |
 |
Belfast to host Britain's first gay wedding (08 August 2005)
Belfast's Kremlin bar will host the first gay weddings in the country, after owner Seamus Sweeney applied for a civil partnership licence for the drinking venue, along with his partner Andre Graham. The couple will host a civil partnership ceremony as soon as the new laws become legal in December. And because of a previously unknown legal twist, the Belfast event will be a day before a series of high-profile ceremonies in Brighton, where organisers had hoped to be the first civil partners in the UK. In England, Wales and Scotland, couples must leave 15 days between giving notice of their intention to become civil partners and the actual ceremony. However, in Northern Ireland, couples will only have to wait 14 days, with the first ceremonies taking place on December 20th. Additionally, because a licence to hold civil partnerships in a venue last three years, Graham, 44, and Sweeney, 33, hope to see numerous lesbian and gay couples getting hitched in the venue, which they own. "The licence will apply for three years so we will have a facility for other people to have it (at the Kremlin), too," Graham told The Sunday Times. He also said, in his eyes, the new laws were marriage for same-sex couples. "To me it's a marriage," he told the newspaper. "I'm not going to worry about the technicalities." Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast ForumBelfast Gay Pride: Another Successful Year (07 August 2005)
Around 4,500 people descended on Belfast City Centre for the Gay Pride parade on Saturday and organisers are quite rightly congratulating themselves on attracting record numbers to the event. Rainbow balloons, boats, jazz bands, disco dancing and Spiderman on a quad bike aided the carnival atmosphere along with a very enthusiastic crowd. The Northern Ireland Police Service said that there were no reports of any trouble. However, despite the large attendance and the carnival atmosphere, the event brought out protestors who had earlier requested, and failed, to get the Parades Commission to ban the march. The group called Stop the Parade Coalition camped outside the City Hall to make their opposition known. They had hired an advertising lorry which they said was to "assist in conveying God's message of repentance to Belfast's sodomite community". The vehicle was displayed outside some of the most popular gay venues in the city. Protestors said parade participants broke agreed guidelines by shouting abuse at them during the march. Spokesman James Dowson claimed some of the marchers called protestors "bigots and religious fundamentalist murderers" oddly he denies the protestors were bigots. Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast ForumChristian group calls for no protests at Gay Pride (05 August 2005)
There is "no moral justification" for the planned protests against Belfast's annual Gay Pride festival, a Christian organisation said yesterday. Zero28, a church-based group which campaigns on issues of peace, justice and social ethics, called on fellow Christians not to stage objections to tomorrow's parade through the city centre. Spokesperson Gareth Higgins said that the protests - organised by an evangelical Christian coalition - were being undertaken in a spirit of homophobia. He said: "The controversy raised by the London-based Stop the Parade group is a sad reflection on the tendency of some of us in the churches to react from a perspective of sincere misunderstanding at best, and prejudice at worst." He acknowledged that there were aspects of Gay Pride that might appear offensive or disagreeable to some people. But he said that Christianity "has all too often become equated with intolerance and negative political stereotyping". He added: "The history of the churches' engagement with lesbian and gay people, not least among its own members, is so overwhelmingly negative that it demands quiet reflection instead of perpetuation through public protest." Zero28 urged the Stop The Parade group to cancel their protest, and has invited Christians "to take seriously the ongoing debates about sexuality, in which many intelligent, serious and committed Christian theologians and clergy have shown that it is possible to differ on issues such as sexuality without denying our common faith". The march, which has been held in Belfast for the past 14 years, was this year classed as "contentious" by the Parades Commission for the first time, following objections. The Commission last week ruled that it could go ahead without restrictions, despite a planned protest organised by Sandown Free Presbyterian Church. The parade assembles at Academy Street at 2pm, heading up Royal Avenue, round the City Hall and as far as Dublin Road before returning to its finish at William Street. It will be the highlight of a week-long programme of events, including fashion shows, film screenings, political forums and a community party in Writers Square. Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast ForumPolitical Links: SDLP - Ulster Unionists - DUP - Alliance Party - Sinn Fein - Green Party
