Taoiseach Leo Varadker has marched in this year's Belfast Pride parade, which had the theme 'Rights Now'. This is a clear demand from Belfast's LGBT community for equal marriage rights in the six counties. While a tweet from Varadker has caused many arguments online, it shouldn't detract from the positive message that may have been hidden behind a poorly worded tweet.
The Taoiseach's tweet reads "Biggest march in Northern Ireland is not orange or green, it’s rainbow coloured. This is NI at its best. Best of Britishness and Irishness."
The underlying message of cross-community support for LGBT rights is certainly a positive, but the fact is that so-called 'Britishness' in the north, in the form of the DUP, has blocked the rights of the LGBT community to this very day. Many leading Unionist politicians, especially MP Sammy Wilson, have said extremely hateful and hurtful things about LGBT people which I'm not going to repeat. The Orange Order is anti-LGBT, as well as political unionism, and has caused quite a conundrum for unionists with the fact that the British Parliament may force marriage equality into the region.
While Varadker probably should have acted in the same manner as Belfast Pride in leaving politics out of the event, his presence, whether it was intended or not, is a political one. Having a Taoiseach attend Belfast Pride would be a great gesture in the process of reunification of our country, but that it is a gay Taoiseach who successfully supported marriage equality in the south, makes it an even more special occasion, given the current political climate.
At present in the north, many liberals are starting to look south of the border with a twinkle in their eye, looking to a part of Ireland where same sex marriage and abortion are legal, where free-trade and free-travel within the EU will continue after 31st October, and where the largest government party may be economically right, at least they don't think that dinosaurs are a hoax.
It is this liberal, middle-class, electorate that will ultimately decide whether or not Ireland is re-unified after nearly 100 years of partition. It is the opinion of this socio-economic group who tend to change opinion polls when it comes to the reunification question. Those in Sinn Féin and the DUP are never going to realistically change their positions on reunification, those votes are almost guaranteed. However is it those liberals on the fence who perhaps vote for Alliance/PBP/Greens that will be swayed in one direction, and that direction most likely will win the Unity Referendum. Varadker's appearance today certainly did some swaying towards to pro-unity camp.
Over the past few years the south has been leading the way in terms of liberalising what was very much a conservative territory of the Catholic Church, and it has worked. Though the Taoiseach can be quite partitionist at time, attending Belfast Pride, supporting the LGBT community across the whole island of Ireland, and after much pressure from Sinn Féin and Border Communities Against Brexit, supporting the backstop, events like this may seem trivial, but are yet another step on the path towards reunifying our country.
The Taoiseach's tweet reads "Biggest march in Northern Ireland is not orange or green, it’s rainbow coloured. This is NI at its best. Best of Britishness and Irishness."
The underlying message of cross-community support for LGBT rights is certainly a positive, but the fact is that so-called 'Britishness' in the north, in the form of the DUP, has blocked the rights of the LGBT community to this very day. Many leading Unionist politicians, especially MP Sammy Wilson, have said extremely hateful and hurtful things about LGBT people which I'm not going to repeat. The Orange Order is anti-LGBT, as well as political unionism, and has caused quite a conundrum for unionists with the fact that the British Parliament may force marriage equality into the region.
While Varadker probably should have acted in the same manner as Belfast Pride in leaving politics out of the event, his presence, whether it was intended or not, is a political one. Having a Taoiseach attend Belfast Pride would be a great gesture in the process of reunification of our country, but that it is a gay Taoiseach who successfully supported marriage equality in the south, makes it an even more special occasion, given the current political climate.
At present in the north, many liberals are starting to look south of the border with a twinkle in their eye, looking to a part of Ireland where same sex marriage and abortion are legal, where free-trade and free-travel within the EU will continue after 31st October, and where the largest government party may be economically right, at least they don't think that dinosaurs are a hoax.
It is this liberal, middle-class, electorate that will ultimately decide whether or not Ireland is re-unified after nearly 100 years of partition. It is the opinion of this socio-economic group who tend to change opinion polls when it comes to the reunification question. Those in Sinn Féin and the DUP are never going to realistically change their positions on reunification, those votes are almost guaranteed. However is it those liberals on the fence who perhaps vote for Alliance/PBP/Greens that will be swayed in one direction, and that direction most likely will win the Unity Referendum. Varadker's appearance today certainly did some swaying towards to pro-unity camp.
Over the past few years the south has been leading the way in terms of liberalising what was very much a conservative territory of the Catholic Church, and it has worked. Though the Taoiseach can be quite partitionist at time, attending Belfast Pride, supporting the LGBT community across the whole island of Ireland, and after much pressure from Sinn Féin and Border Communities Against Brexit, supporting the backstop, events like this may seem trivial, but are yet another step on the path towards reunifying our country.
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