First National Conference To Be Staged in Northern Ireland

BELFAST, November 18, 2005  –  When UNISON open their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender National Conference here this afternoon, a little bit of trade union history will be made.
 

It will be the first-ever national conference by any trades union to be staged in Northern Ireland.

UNISON, with more than 1.3 million members, is the largest trade union in the United Kingdom.

“The conference is being hosted against a backdrop of spiralling numbers of homophobic hate crimes in Northern Ireland and a warning by the NI Affairs Committee that this type of crime is in danger of getting out of control,” said Patricia McKeown, Northern Ireland regional secretary of UNISON, at a press conference this morning.

But, she continued, “there is also a spirit of change in the way homophobia is viewed and dealt with here.

“This conference promises to be powerful in the context of challenging prejudice.  We salute our union for bring the conference to Belfast in an act of solidarity with our members.”

Tim Roberts, who co-chairs the national LGBT committee of the union said the conference would not only address the issues of workplace equality but would also “celebrate our role in public life and challenge discrimination at work and in society”

The union’s general secretary Dave Prentis publicly challenged homophobia in Northern Ireland earlier this year.  “UNISON has been in the vanguard of promoting positive change and this will be apparent in the event which is timely considering the climate of homophobia that still prevails,” he told the press conference.

The conference, at the Europa Hotel in Belfast, continues until Sunday (November 20).  Over 300 delegates from all over the United Kingdom are attending.

SEE ALSO

Gay Group Demands Clarification on Homophobia from DUP.  The remarks of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Councillor, Maurice Mills, in which he described Hurricane Katrina as being sent by God to punish lesbian and gay people and to prevent the gay Southern Decadence weekend in New Orleans from going ahead, are “stupid, irresponsible and rooted in deep-seated homophobia”, the Rainbow Project in Northern Ireland said today. (UK Gay News, November 18)

LINK

UNISON LGBT Section website