Lisburn Castlereagh Mayor heralds LGBTQIA+ policy as "important first step"

Kurtis Dickson
-Credit: (Image: Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live)


A Northern Ireland council's first openly gay mayor has praised a new LGBTQIA+ policy as an "important first step" for the local authority following a year of delays.
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council's (LCCC) corporate committee was presented with the new equality policy this week, which has been sent to the Equality Commission for review.
However, a DUP councillor has warned of a "dangerous path" of creating a "hierarchy" of minority groups.

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Mayor Kurtis Dickson (Alliance) said: "As a council this policy should be reflective of our residents. This is an important first step and a great one. Though, I would like to see the council build on this policy and not let it become static."
Elected members signed off on a proposal by Castlereagh South Sinn Fein rep, Daniel Bassett to support the LGBTQIA+ community.
Despite opposition from the DUP and two UUP councillors, the motion was carried and ratified by a majority vote in September 2023.
The policy outlines the council's active participation in Pride events and sensitivity training of council members and staff on LGBTQIA+ issues. Caution has been aired in chambers following the controversy over LGBTQIA+ training of PSNI staff.
Lisburn North independent cllr, Gary Hynds added: "There is one area that rings a bell with me and that is an issue that received much publicity about similar equality training provided to the PSNI. It is important that we are all open and transparent and not saying the public doesn't need to know."
Recent equality concerns were publicly raised over the PSNI's LGBT Network to give exclusive support and training to LGBTQIA+ identifying police officers seeking promotion.
In September the PSNI released a statement, which said that its proposed training was "exclusionary" towards straight people, and was not conducive to "creating a positive 'one team' environment".
A council officer responded: "An equality officer has come in who has the required training qualifications already. It is not necessary to detail this training, but if a Freedom of Information request came in we would look at this."
Killultagh Sinn Fein cllr, Gary McCleave said: "I would like to commend my party colleague Cllr Bassett for bringing the original motion to council. I would just like to say that we shouldn't have to bring a motion on equality, when we have that equality already."
However, Lisburn North DUP rep, Alan Givan, on behalf of his party was the only dissenting voice on the new policy.
He said: "It would be very wrong if special status or a hierarchy was created. Mr Mayor says that it is a first step and I am not sure what he means. It could suggest that there were more steps going forward.
"If so, then all other groups need to take steps and that would be a dangerous path to go down. This is a minority group we are talking about. There is about 97% of people who may not hold the same values as the LGBT community. There should be no extra funding or opportunities over others. That is the position my group will hold."
Committee UUP chair, Nicholas Trimble concluded the chamber debate, saying: "I don't want to get in to a debate of why anyone has any different opinions on this, but the points are duly noted. I would like to echo the sentiments of the Mayor, this is good to see. I would also like to thank the officers who worked hard and diligently on this policy."

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