Theresa May looks set to make a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who have consistently voted against LGBT+ equality.
ARLENE FOSTER: the DUP leader.
The DUP have earned themselves a reputation for being homophobic after voting against same-sex marriage four times.
The Conservatives have failed to achieve an overall majority in the General Election, securing 38 seats. A party needs 326 seats in order to have a majority in the UK.
Theresa May looks to have negotiated with the DUP, who have 10 seats, in order to take their total number of seats up to 328, a majority of just three seats. However, the coalition will not be welcome news for many in the LGBT+ community has the DUP has run on a platform of conservativism which includes anti-LGBT equality and anti-abortion.
During their campaigning and the release of their manifesto, the DUP failed to mention any pledges for the LGBT community.
The party’s founder Ian Paisley spearheaded the Save Ulster from Sodomy in the 1970s, which was opposed to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland, in fact, Northern Ireland was the last country within the UK to decriminalise homosexuality, which it did so in 1982. Paisley’s son, Ian Paisley Jr said that he was “repulsed” by homosexuality.
Many historic senior DUP figures have attracted criticism for a variety of homophobic remarks. In 2015 Health Minister Jim Wells claimed children brought up in same-sex relationships were more likely to be abused or neglected; he was forced to resign shortly thereafter and the police investigated his remarks.
In 2008 the wife of then-First Minister Peter Robinson, Iris Robinson, recommended conversion therapy and called homosexuality “disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked, and vile.”
Any gaytories who voted for Theresa must feel pretty shame faced right about now…