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She had turned up to see the Pride parade along with her husband, daughter and grandson. He added: 'This is our city at its most diverse and this is one of the most creative communities we have in Belfast.'Īmong those watching the start of the procession was Evelyn McCartan from the nearby Markets area.
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The Sinn Fein councillor described Pride as 'the real face of 21st-century Belfast'. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Tom Hartley, also turned up at the parade. Police estimated that several thousand joined the procession from Belfast's Customs House Square to City Hall. However, the born-again Christian demonstrators were vastly outnumbered and drowned out by the much larger, noisier Pride parade. There were, however, no prominent DUP politicians at either demonstration. They had taken out a full-page ad in a local newspaper on Friday denouncing homosexuality and calling on born-again Christians to turn up at their protests yesterday.
#FIRST GAY PRIDE PARADE IN BELFAST FREE#
There were two counter-demonstrations organised by Protestant fundamentalist groups including members of the Rev Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church. The numbers are up because people want to show solidarity. 'She has done us a favour because it has forced a lot of people to face up to the fact that homophobia still exists in Northern Ireland,' he said. Her comments led to calls by other members of the Northern Ireland Assembly for her to be removed as chair of the Stormont health committee.Ī number of other clergymen joined the Gay Pride march along Belfast's Royal Avenue, including the Rev Chris Hudson, the Dublin-born peace activist who acted as a secret conduit between loyalist paramilitaries and the Irish government in the lead up to the 1994 ceasefires.ĭressed in the red robes and pointed mitre of a Catholic bishop, PA MagLochlainn, president of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, said he wanted to thank Robinson for her intervention in the gay equality debate. The wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister, Peter Robinson, also claimed psychological counselling could 'cure' gay people. In June, Robinson told a local radio that homosexuality was 'disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked and vile'. 'At the Church of Ireland synod in Galway last May we had a stall for the first time and I counted only three delegates who refused to take our leaflets and only one who objected to our presence,' Kingston said, holding up a poster with the words: 'Iris We Love You.'
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He said there was growing support within the Church of Ireland for equality for gay people inside the Anglican Communion. 'This is the first time our banner has been displayed at Pride in Belfast because it was important to increase our visibility and to show people that there are alternative Christian views than those espoused by Iris Robinson,' said a retired Church of Ireland minister, the Rev Mervyn Kingston. Her remarks prompted one organisation to become the first Christian gay group to march in the Belfast parade.Ĭhanging Attitude Ireland, a new organisation representing gay Christians throughout the island, said they had decided to join Pride in response to the MP's remarks. Organisers claimed the large turn-out was in response to the controversy stirred up by the DUP MP, who recently also likened gay sex to child abuse.