4 June 2007

Gerry Fitzpatrick

If there was a moment that indicated the stupidity of all involved in Sinn Fein/DUP/Unionist pact that now claims to govern us it was the fall out that occurred after Ian Paisley Jnr declared his opposition once again last week to homosexuality. For whatever acts IP Jnr thought he could stop by such utterances, it actually told us a lot about the political fantasies of Unionism and the weird liberation theory of Sinn Fein. 

What it Wasn’t About 

First the ‘fall out’ in question here was not the ludicrous Unionist nonsense about IP Jnr being ‘allowed’ to give the statements that he did – as if we lived in a society where the supporters of gay rights had power to stop the utterances of Son of Paisley, or for that matter the indecent display of the common Unionist/Tory fantasy – that we live in a society where the speaking rights of the bigot are under constant threat from elusive politically correct office bearers. 

High Points of an Opposition 

And what were those not so elusive office bearers saying about the situation? First there was Andrew Muir of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation who made it clear that he supported the attempts of IP Jnr to express himself.  Then there was the more significant performance of a Sinn Fein MLA on the Politics Show who endorsed one Sunday newspapers view that, where once it had been the case that Paisleyism’s main opposition had been to catholic civil rights, it was now only opposed to gay rights. All that was required was for Sinn Fein to issue their disagreement in spirit of good colonial governmental co?operation and the matter would be resolved. 

Just like all the other brutalities of this reactionary, sectarian, society that are being resolved, in face of such imaginative SF opposition.