NORTHERN IRELAND: Challenge To Same-Sex Marriage Ban To Be Heard In December

Northern Ireland’s Rainbow Project this morning announced on Facebook that their clients’ same-sex marriage ban challenge will be heard on December 3rd. According to a poll released in July, 68% of the Northern Irish public now supports same-sex marriage, an even greater number than the 62% that voted “yes” in Ireland’s national referendum. The highest support comes from Catholics, 75% of whom support equal marriage. Support among polled Protestants stands at 57%.

In related news, today New York Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, who authored his state’s ultimately successful marriage bill, will speak at Ulster University in Belfast about the “inevitability” of marriage equality coming to Northern Ireland. Last month Ivan Lewis, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland, called for a public vote to legalize same-sex marriage. His suggestion is opposed both by the Rainbow Project and the anti-gay Evangelical Alliance, the latter of whom have surely seen that July poll. (Tipped by JMG reader Lulu)