The people of Northern Ireland support same-sex marriage, it's just the DUP that doesn't

An Ipsos MORI poll published in July 2015 showed 68% support for equal marriage - but the DUP doesn't care

Drag queens wave to the crowds as thousands of participants and supporters take part in the 25th annual Belfast Pride parade on August 1, 2015 (Getty)

Today should have been a celebration of Northern Ireland joining Britain and the Republic in recognising same sex marriage. Instead that historic first vote in favour of marriage equality by the Assembly has ben torpedoed by the DUP’s use of a mechanisim designed to protect minority rights rather than deny them.

Let’s be clear: by using a device known as a “petition of concern” the DUP have voted not to promote the unionist community as it was designed but to hold back the lesbian and gay community by denying them access to civil marriage.

Today’s debate was the fifth debate on marriage equality and the first since this year’s historic referendum in the Republic of Ireland.

When it was last debated in April 2015 the motion failed by two votes, with 47 in favour and 49 against. The politicians have now caught up with the public and voted 53 – 51.

The Assembly voted to stand up for equality and say that civil marriage should be open to all citizens, whether lesbian, gay or straight. It cannot be right that we continue to tolerate discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexuality. Sadly, that isn’t the view of the DUP.

"The veto used in this case to protect the ideology of one party in circumstances where there is widespread and cross-community support for a motion is a clear abuse of the mechanism."

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Any vote taken by the Assembly can be made dependent on cross-community support rather than a simple majority if a petition of concern is presented to the Speaker.

In such cases, a vote on proposed legislation will only pass if supported by a weighted majority (60%) of members voting, including at least 40% of each of the nationalist and unionist designations present and voting.

Effectively this means that, provided enough MLAs from a given community agree, that community can exercise a veto over the Assembly's decisions.

They were designed as a way to safeguard minority rights in Stormont's fledgling power-sharing assembly, but now petitions of concern are themselves becoming a matter of concern, as with their use here today.

To be fair to the DUP, other parties in the Assembly have sought to use the petition of concern mechanism for all sorts of measures that were not originally intended.

But only the DUP can reach the 30 member threshold for a petition of concern from within its own members giving it permanent veto powers.

The opponents of equal marriage have continued to perpetuate a status quo that is not in Northern Ireland’s broader financial, development or cultural interest.

Does Northern Ireland really want to be the only place across these islands that says to its own citizens, to businesses looking to relocate, or to investors from abroad that is a place that lesbian or gay people cannot make their home and live their lives as they would want to – and can – in either the Republic of Ireland or Britain? It seems, for the DUP at least, the answer is yes.

In the Labour Party Irish Society we see through our work with the diaspora in Britain those who have felt the need to move across the water because of the discrimination they face as LGBTs in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is better than this. Indeed an Ipsos MORI poll published in July 2015 showed 68% support for equal marriage. There was clear majority support among both men and women, from both Catholic and Protestant community backgrounds and across all urban and rural areas.

The problem is the politicians not the public. The veto used in this case to protect the ideology of one party in circumstances where there is widespread and cross-community support for a motion is a clear abuse of the mechanism.

As long as the State offers marriage, then it should do so to both straight and gay couples alike. Lesbian and gay couples should be able to get married in a civil marriage, not a civil partnership and have to pretend it is marriage. But different is not equal.

It is right that there are protections for faith groups, and it’s right that Churches can continue to chose who they marry and who they don’t, for example as some of them do today with divorcees. And despite the fears beforehand, no one has brought a case to challenge this following the change in the law in Britain.

But by vetoing marriage equality despite the Assembly vote, the DUP have shown themselves to be on the wrong side of history as they argue Northern Ireland’s LGBT citizens aren’t equal before the law.

Those who voted for equal marriage today should feel pride. Sadly, in the Northern Ireland Assembly at least, it is possible to win and yet lose – thanks to the DUP.

Matthew Doyle is chair of the Labour Party Irish Society and a former adviser to Tony Blair