Politics

If you ever hear Arlene Foster complaining about same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, just remind her of this simple fact

DUP leader Arlene Foster

Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. (Charles McQuillan/Getty)

LGBT+ people won a historic victory in Northern Ireland today with the legalisation of same-sex marriage, but as predicted, Arlene Foster and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) didn’t let it happen without a fight.

Along with a handful of members from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), DUP leader Arlene Foster led a last ditch attempt to stop marriage equality and legal abortion just hours before the new laws passed.

Having gained the minimum 30 signatures required for a petition of recall, Foster tried in vain to reform Northern Ireland’s devolved government, Stormont, for the first time since March 2017.

But lacking enough cross-party support to even elect a Speaker, they didn’t get very far.

As the majority of seats remained conspicuously empty for the bizarre 48-minute sitting, the assembly was nothing more than “a spectacular sham”, according to the Belfast Telegraph‘s Suzanne Breen.

Rather than undermining the legislation in any way, the unionist MLAs instead used their platform for what Breen scathingly described as “a pantomime,” adding: “A piece of high-class political theatre it was not.”

“This is not the end of the matter, as far as this party’s concerned,” Foster told the sparsely populated chamber. But it really is.

For the eager viewers over on Gay Twitter™, Arlene Foster’s searing defeat was sheer joy to watch. And LGBT+ journalist Benjamin Butterworth was quick to point out a fatal flaw in her campaign against abortion and same-sex marriage.

“Regulatory alignment” refers to the DUP’s position on Brexit, pushing for legislative parity with the rest of the UK to avoid a trade barrier which would be detrimental to businesses.

Essentially, Arlene Foster’s DUP sought to be firmly aligned with the UK in all elements of its Brexit ‘deal’… but not on human rights issues like access to abortion or equal marriage.

Obviously the DUP can’t have its cake and eat it too, as Twitter users were only too happy to explain.

PinkNews cannot be sure what Arlene Foster’s reaction was when she awoke this morning in a country where gay marriage is legal, but we imagine it was something like this.

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