Comments on: Homophobic church advert criticised by advertising standards body

By: NIgay

NIgay — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:52:08 +0000

Deal!

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By: Will

Will — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:20:53 +0000

Touche, NIGay! We'll agree to share him under the title of "Oscar Wilde, from Ireland"

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By: NIgat

NIgat — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:54:13 +0000

Will – true, Wilde was born in Dublin. We educated him in Enniskillen though, and he's better known for his learning than his nativity

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By: Will

Will — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:19:27 +0000

NIGay, totally agree….

…just one thing though, Oscar Wilde was from Dublin. Can't let you have the credit for him, I'm afraid!

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By: NIgay

NIgay — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:09:03 +0000

I've been reading these comments with amazement that gays are turning on an entire population. The comments here about the population of NI are nothing less than racist. Let's get the facts right guys: England has its fair share of homophobes and the English press regularly covers stories about fundamentalist christian groups engaged in homophobic campaigns. Even today there's a Pink News story about an English policeman who's just been sacked for homophobic emails and there's a running story about an English registrar who refuses to conduct civil partnerships. You also have an english Archbishop who refused to make a gay priest bishop of Reading. In Northern Ireland, we have a very small fundamentalist church in this story (just 12,000 members of that church) which has run a homophobic ad. We haven't had a registrar challenge the civil partnership rules, nor a policeman chucked out for homophobia. We have a pro-gay chief constable, and we hosted the UK's first same-sex civil partnership ceremony. For that matter, we also gave you Oscar Wilde (a former pupil of Portora Royal School in Northern Ireland). It was also progressive Ulster MP called H. Montgomery Hyde who campaigned successfully for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain back in the late 50s/early 60s. Please stop this anti-Northern Irish rant. It's no more acceptable than an anti-gay rant.

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By: Will

Will — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:53:12 +0000

There's a lot of stereotyping of Northern Irish people here, much of it unfounded.

As an actual Irishman, I can confidently say many of the stereotypes are simply not true. A few bad stories on the BBC and in the Sun doesn't not always paint a complete picture of any race/country. Not all NI people are bigoted, as not all of them "hate the English", or are "angry", no more then they are all "terrorists". You'll see as much, or as little, bigotry against gay people in West Kerry and North Yorkshire as you will in South Tyrone.

Perhaps we can try to converse in facts rather than generalist impressions of 1.7m people… lets leave the extremism to right wing nuts like Billy Perdue and his ex-pat puppy.

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By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:31:57 +0000

Gibe it back to the Republic… NI voted the DUP into power as their main party of government, for crying out loud! Its the equivilent of putting the BNP into Westminster!

Although having visited Dublin and the Republic many times, and witnessed the their attitudes compared to those in Belfast, I'd say the Republic doesn't want them… they at least have managed to move on from the past.

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By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:44:03 +0000

If we are so parasitic why does England want us? They invaded, fought a war to keep us and now they have half of what they wished for (or at lease 6 counties. You can't invade a country and then complain that it costs you money! when clearly you owe the people of the country you invaded something.

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By: Eddy

Eddy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:47:52 +0000

Hi "Stereotype". Look, I've had a lot of contact with people in Northern Ireland, and while being IN Northern Ireland as well, and I know that the personality of the people who live there, whether Catholic or Protestant, is unique. There is a disposition to raw emotion, born of the long history of troubles. This character trait has to die out, and reasonableness and civility has to slowly take its place.

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By: stereotype

stereotype — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:03:09 +0000

nothing like tarring a whole population with the reputation and actions of a bigoted minority – i wonder how the english would feel if we judged them all on what the BNP get up to?

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By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:40:53 +0000

Lets face it, wot a suprise that this comes out of Northern Ireland! And wot a suprise its Paisley's lot yet again! How fortunate not to be born Gay in N. Ireland (almost as bad as being born Gay in Iran!) but the Cardinal whosoever was also spouting off a week or so ago so as Shakespear put it, a Plague on both your houses!|)

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By: Eddy

Eddy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:21:40 +0000

What to do about the peoples of Northern Ireland! They have so much irrationality and hatred "in their veins". To be more scientific about it, their minds have lived with extraordinary irrationality for centuries. It is going to be a very very long time yet before their minds begin to operate in a calm and rational manner. In fact, it will take generations before this is achieved. The important thing is that at least the path to freedom from bigotry has begun, for both Catholics and Protestants alike.

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By: George Broadhead, Secretary Pink Triangle Trust

George Broadhead, Secretary Pink Triangle Trust — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:22:31 +0000

In sharp contrast to the homophobia of most religionists, Humanists give unequivocal support to LGBT rights. The Humanist Association of Northern Ireland has demonstrated this by taking part in Belfast Pride.

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By: john wilfred sharp

john wilfred sharp — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:59:21 +0000

educate them
but they say the are educated
so it is willfully planed hate
so they need to be put away , for inciting to hate

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By: NIgay

NIgay — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:31:16 +0000

I am amazed to read that comment from GENDY, who displays precisely the same kind of bigotry he is attributing to an entire population. For your information, gendy, Sinn Fein has been extremely slow to respond in public policy to the gay community in Northern Ireland. They still argue about whether Sir Roger Casement was gay, when every historian in the world has acknowledged this fact. Bigotry is not limited to one religious community. In fact, as a Catholic gay person in Northern Ireland I can tell you that the gay community here brings together protestants and catholics in a common sense of identity. If the protestant church produces the Free Presbyterian homophobia, my own church has produced centuries of catholic homophobia.

Your comment includes so many errors of fact that it is difficult to know how to respond to it. I am just disappointed when I see such an appallingly sectarian and bigotted comment coming from a gay person. Surely, since we as gay people have been on the receiving end of so much bigotry, we should be more sensitive to these issues than others.

80 per cent of the NI population does not work for the government, by the way. It is building new economic relationships with the Republic, GB, and the rest of Europe. We have an extremely well educated workforce, which is proving very attractive to investers in the knowledge economy. In fact, we have the highest educational results in the UK.

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By: stereotype

stereotype — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:27:46 +0000

gendy – if you had any idea about your own country's history you would know that it was the English who turned Northern Ireland into a 'bigot shithole', I speak coming from no political or religious affiliation, just a gay person who had to grown up in that shithole and had the decency to take the time to find out the truth about how it became that way, perhaps you should do the same, especially if you haven't experienced it for yourself. Your facts are so wildly inaccurate that it's almost impossible to take you seriously, the only reason i do so is because, like the bigots you dispise so much, you behave just like one, spitting forth venom about something which you obviously know nothing about.

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By: Gene Touchet

Gene Touchet — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:59:07 +0000

"Human Sexuality," Kosnik, et al, 1977, is a Catholic theological society's rebuttal for many of the alleged Biblical proscriptions against what we call homosexuality. The book, of course, was banned by the Catholic Church and its authors silenced. It remains an effective argument against fundamentalists' interpretation.
Get the book and educate them.

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By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:54:41 +0000

Can anyone provide the link to the origional BBC story reported here?

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By: Dan R

Dan R — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:23:17 +0000

Why is the church obsessed with anal sex and gay people?

Doesn't everyone have an anus, and don't straight people sometimes indulge in putting things up there, whether male or female, whatever religious background, whatever ethnicity??? lol …. we are HUMAN!

I personally don't enjoy anal and the knee-jerk focus on sodomy by the church strikes me as 19th century scaremongering tat, rather than a modern, tolerant viewpoint and inclusivity.

This is just plain homophobia and as a Psychologist I think that those who oppose gay people, or more importantly gay pride, on the grounds of sodomy probably have deeper issues.

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By: gendy

gendy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:22:33 +0000

Two points..SinnFein supports gay rights in Northern Ireland – hence the bile from the Protestant Extremists as exemplified by the DUP.Anything that Sinn Fein does is excoriated by the Sicko Protestants in NI.

The PSNI is not much different to the RUC and is still Protestant extremist flavoured.It will do nothing efective against the DUP and the Paisleyites.

Northern Ireland is a bigot shithole that has cost the English Taxpayer billions upon billions of pounds since 1968 – this God-forsaken land will never change and the politicians from the DUP and UU know how to tickle up trouble to get more money from Whitehall at any crucial moment.

Prediction : there will be a jamboree of public sector job creation in Ulster to shield it from the Credit Crunch and unemployment.Remember anyway that 80% of the working population works for government already – there is no manufacturing or indeed any other economy left there now.Northern Ireland is totally parasitic on the United Kingdom – it takes hugely and gives nothing other than the threat of bombs in British Cities planted by the Loyalists and the IRA.

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