Stormont, the home of Northern Ireland’s assembly, has never exactly been a place associated with social liberalism. So Steerpike was surprised to find that the Ulster parliament – where the Bible-bashing Ian Paisley held court for so long – has spent thousands of pounds on controversial LGBT+ charity Stonewall.
Freedom of Information requests by Mr S found that the Assembly paid £7,500 to be members of the organisation’s ‘diversity champions programme’ between 2018 and 2021, with the Northern Ireland executive spending a further £1,440 for Stonewall seminars on leadership, allyship and promoting mental health since the beginning of 2020.
Other recent diversity courses hosted by the executive include an LGBT workshop in 2018 – back when same-sex marriage was illegal there – along with transgender and ethnic awareness seminars. More recent ‘webinars’ in pandemic times have included ones on racial equality, racial discrimination and mental health.
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