To appeal to liberals DUP have to be liberal

Apparently Peter Robinson's moves to attend GAA games are to woo liberal unionists according to today's Belfast Telegraph.

If the DUP really want to woo liberals, why don't they start to send a representative to the discussion panels that form part of the Pride weeks around Northern Ireland. Until they are seen to be listening to everyone they cannot be seen as 'liberal'.

I can't be in two places at once

I'd rather be up in Londonderry/Derry right now like I was last August taking part in the Foyle Pride Parade. But As you can see from the league table below, every point, indeed every shot counts before we at North Down take on Markethill next week.

As it is I'll be in Carrickfergus for the penultimate game of the season. However, I will be up in Northern Ireland's second city a day too late tomorrow delivering wedding presents ahead of a wedding in two weeks time.

To everyone taking part in Foyle Pride today hope you have a good, safe day. As for the protestors remember that Jesus loves them too, just pass on his love to them.

Wish I was there walking from the Train Station to Guild Hall Square like last year.

Foyle Pride 2010

Posted Elsewhere: It may be Free Derry, but she's not free to come speak there

Cross posting from LGBT Lib Dems Northern Ireland

Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesra may have won the the 2011 Martin Ennals award for Human Rights but she has been denied entry into the UK to be a keynote speaker at Foyle Pride.

This lesbian campaigner was due to kick off the Foyle Pride festival on 24th August. The limited resources of the Pride committee of Northern Ireland's second city were looking to increase on the spalsh they made last year with the first Pride Parade in the city. They booked and paid to get the Executive Director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, a main lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights organization, to the festival. But the UK Borders Agency has denied her a visa to enter the UK.

Read the rest here

OK you want a straight pride...

One of the arguments that most homophobes give for not having a Pride Festival or even a Parade is "Well you don't see a Straight Pride". Here is Davey Wavey asking those people to think about it and why there isn't.



I'll be in Belfast today marching with my fellow Liberal Democrats, as well as the Alliance Party, Greens, SDLP, trade unions, LGBT groups, individuals, other supportive groups. We'll set out from Custom House Square at 2pm. At the City Hall we will parade past the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor, before returning to Custom House Square for the party in the square.

This is my first Belfast Parade but not my first Pride Parade, indeed I did three of them last summer and will be heading up to London/Derry in August to take part once again in Foyle Pride.

A Little Bit of History

It's not everyday that you can say you took part in a little bit of history but setting off from Bangor on the 9:57 train this morning heading to my father's home city I did just that.

Meeting up with members of Belfast Pride at Great Victoria Street Station (a task I had to do in my own gregarious way as we weren't meeting Mícheál Carchrie Campbell until Yorkgate) it was off to Northern Ireland's second city for their inaugural Pride Parade. Starting from Duke Street railway station it followed the route of the 1968 Civil Rights March.

As a result it followed a lot of my families history, there are various members living on or near Duke Street in the 1901 or 1911 census. We crossed the Craigavon Bridge, around the 'Hands Across the Divide Statue' which was the closest point to the Fountain area where my father grew up and where my Grandmother lived most of her live. Also up past Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church where my grandparents were married. Eventually arriving having entered the city walls and exited them again at Guildhall Square.

Those of us who had travelled up by train had been a bit worried as the train pulled past the assembly point as there didn't seem to be a great turnout, but that soon changed, as this picture goes some way to show .



As seems to be the way with these things there was a little shower or two, but that didn't spoil the atmosphere as ever. Plus of course all those who marched were making that little bit of history.

One really great thing about how this first Foyle Pride was received was the way the car drivers on the Craigavon Bridge and the bus passengers, plus those along the pavement as we paraded through the City streets past the shops, bars and cafes were really supportive of the parade. Of course there were the dour church folk at the roundabout as we started, whose protested doesn't appear to have been registered on the Parade Commission's website (oops!). But the majority of the people of Derry were not listening to them but accepted the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transexual/gender and Questioning) community to their hearts.

I'm proud to be a son of Derry descent for (at least) four generations on today's reaction.




See more pictures on my Flickr account.