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Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s vice president said her party won\u2019t agree to a deal to restore the power-sharing government unless it includes the extension of same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\nSinn F\u00e9in\u2019s vice president said her party won\u2019t agree to a deal to restore the power-sharing government unless it includes the extension of same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Michelle O\u2019Neill told a political debate as part of the Belfast Pride Festival she believed the Stormont Assembly had failed the people by not passing same-sex marriage into law, and she blamed the DUP.<\/p>\n
The DUP did not send a representative to attend the Pride Talks Back event, which included speakers from the UUP, SDLP, Alliance, Green Party, PUP and People Before Profit.<\/p>\n
Hours after meeting the UK’s new Northern Ireland Secretary of State Julian Smith about continuing talks over the return of power-sharing, Ms O\u2019Neill said marriage equality must be delivered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our determination to deliver marriage equality, we must deliver marriage equality. In 2019, for anybody to seriously say any legislator can sit and actively deny or discriminate against one section of society is just not acceptable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Westminster Government voted to both liberalize access to abortion and allow same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland if devolution is not restored.<\/p>\n
Ms O\u2019Neill said it was still her favored position to have marriage equality voted on locally by locally elected politicians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t sit comfortably with me as an Irish republican to ask the British Government to legislate but if rights are going to continually be denied and the Assembly can\u2019t deliver, then that is the context in which Westminster can deliver the legislation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms O\u2019Neill added: \u201cAny deal that\u2019s reached in terms of the restoration of the Assembly will have to include marriage equality, that\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie said: \u201cRussian roulette cannot be played with equal marriage\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said his party wanted to see the petition of concern \u2013 a form of veto within the Northern Ireland Assembly \u2013 \u201cput out of reach\u201d of any one political party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we go back into an Executive again and the petition of concern still sits at 30, then it\u2019s giving the DUP the ammunition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alliance leader Naomi Long responded saying she wants to see same-sex marriage delivered by the Stormont Assembly, but not as part of a power-sharing deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe that\u2019s enough because it might be equal marriage today but there will be other LGBT issues tomorrow that will need to be addressed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want an Assembly that\u2019s structures are sound and capable of dealing with progressive rights legislation day in and day out, not just a special deal on one issue. Not just to sit on your hands and don\u2019t use the petition of concern this time around.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want reform so that we can\u2019t use the petition of concern to block enabling people\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want it done on that basis, not on the basis of just raising the numbers because all that means is you have a higher target to hit in order to be able to block things that people don\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Beattie also referenced former UUP leader and ex-first minister Lord Trimble who recently admitted that he struggled when his daughter came out as gay, but that ultimately the experience led him to backing same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI challenged David Trimble at the time, I said \u2018look if you can accept that for your daughter, why could you have never accepted that for someone else\u2019s daughter?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people in my party, people in my wider extended family, in the community that I live in, that all have different views, but some of them are moving, are changing and that\u2019s a positive thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n