The following is the text of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association’s submission to Initiative ’92 / The Opsahl Commission.
1 Social and political change in Northern Ireland should come about by way of peaceful agitation and argument
2 NIGRA is opposed to political violence – including ‘moral cleansing’ – freelance, paramilitary, and State.
3 NIGRA supports the extension to Northern Ireland of progressive, liberalising law, e. g. the Abortion Act and the Race Relations Act.
The Abortion Act needs improving, the rights of the woman should be strengthened and made more explicit. The ‘conscience’ clause for medical personnel should be dropped; persons with religious objections to this procedure should not be practising in this branch of medicine.
The Race Relations Act should be extended to Northern Ireland as it stands. The Act has been extended, by way of case law, to include groups not at first recognised by Parliament. They include the Travellers, as well as the English ‘ and the Northern Irish.
4 An Incitement to Hatred Act for the whole UK should be introduced. It would protect the sensibilities of all races, ethnic groups, and religions, without diminishing the right of citizens to subject their fellow-citizens to legitimate criticism.
This law should protect sexual and linguistic minorities, and also the disabled.
Current laws on blasphemy should be rescinded.
5 A Bill of Rights for sexual minorities would have the same drawback as similar, general, Bill[s] of Rights: that which was not contained in such a Bill could ‘ and would ‘ be deemed unlawful.
Changing the law by way of an Enabling Act would have much the same effect. It would, also, not necessarily affect laws on inheritance and pension rights.
NIGRA, like the Lesbian and Gay Committee of the erstwhile GLC (Greater London Council), feels that the law should be changed Act by Act, and be rendered gender-neutral.
6 We demand equal rightSeand equal jeopardy before the law.
7 All citizens should have access to the law in all of its aspects, up to Privy Council / European level.
8 The operation of the law should be drastically changed. Our present, adversarial, system wherein advocates hold back information or openly smear plaintiffs (or victims) iSean outrage against justice.
A system like that operation in Scotland, where the object of the exercise in Courts of Law is to ascertain the truth, or at east, the greatest degree of accuracy, should be adopted.
9 All Courts should be open to the public in a meaningful way ‘ many Courts have few seats for the public. Court and police, and other records,should be open to those to whom they refer. Secret files on ordinary citizens should not be kept. The keeping of such files should be illegal.
10 The victims, and their dependants / families, in murder cases should be represented in Court.
11 The ‘Portsmouth Defence’, whereby the (usually appallingly violent) killing of men (and sometimes women), is excused ‘ due to the killer’s disgust at the victim’s (alleged) homosexuality ‘ should be done away with.
12 Objective information about non-heterosexuals in history, culture, and in the contemporary world, should be offered to school students, so that they will acquire a balanced view of sexuality in society.
13 Gay (lesbian, bisexual, gaymale, transsexual, transvestite & c) school students should be respected, and protected from bullying. So, also, should students who are not Gay, but are perceived as such.
14 Whether Gay people make up 2% or 20% of the population, we are entitled to the same aid as other sections of society. Thus, it is not unreasonable to ask the authorities to help in the creation of community centres for our community, as well as for the community in general.