Gay and unionist - a changing of the times?

Alison Bennington celebrating after retaining her seat in the 2023 council elections

When Alison Bennington became the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) first openly gay election candidate, former Health Minister Jim Wells claimed the party's founder Ian Paisley would be “aghast”.

Five years on Wells is gone but Bennington appears to be quietly going from strength to strength.

This week with no fanfare she was elected secretary of the DUP Councillors' Association.

Only in the DUP would this be worthy of much evaluation.

She was nominated by councillor Glyn Hanna and seconded by his Newry Mourne and Down colleague Alan Lewis.

She faced a challenge from Kyle Moutray, son of former Stormont assembly member Stephen Moutray.

When Bennington won with what is thought to have been a comfortable margin it is said to have brought the largest cheer of the night.

“When she was elected I thought the cheers were going to raise the roof," says one source who was there.

"This a victory for the new DUP. This is a good news story."

Another source said: "It’s pretty telling she beat off a challenge from the son of a DUP traditionalist and won support from right across the party."

Bennington won the most first preference votes in the Glengormley Urban ward in 2023

'Not defined by her sexuality'

As to what Bennington thought, we may never know.

Five years after her first election to Antrim and Newtownabbey Council she is still to do an interview.

I was sent to cover her first council meeting on a mission to ask her for her views.

Her DUP council colleagues were equally determined I should do no such thing.

They won by throwing what can only be described as a protective cordon around her.

Not that Bennington needed any persuading that talking to me would have been a bad idea.

She has shown little appetite for speaking out on matters LGBT.

When the Alliance party proposed flying an updated Progress Pride flag on council buildings she opposed the idea.

She said that as a gay person she did not feel there was any requirement for any variation of the Pride flag to be flown in the borough.

And then she added: “I joined the DUP because I wanted to be treated as an equal. I am treated as an equal.

"I do not need a flag to be thrown back in my face. I will not support this motion.“

One source close to her thinking said: "All this spotlight on Alison is unfair. She is not defined by her sexuality.

"For example she had a long record of service in the armed forces and local government."

Nevertheless it is for her sexuality that she is most widely known, especially in a party which still opposes same-sex marriage.

Ian Paisley Snr once notoriously led a campaign called: "Save Ulster From Sodomy."

Jeff Dudgeon won a landmark case in 1981 which helped to decriminalise gay sex

But Jeff Dudgeon, a lifelong gay activist and former Ulster Unionist Party councillor, thinks the DUP is sometimes unfairly singled out.

"From talking to DUP people many of them no longer think it's an issue. I'm uncomfortable with the fact that some people seem to think getting the DUP on this issue is a blood sport," he said.

"Much of it is led by Sinn Féin, yet I'm not aware of that party having any openly gay elected representatives in Northern Ireland."

A spokesperson for Sinn Féin said: "Sinn Féin has public representatives from the LGBTIQA+ community. Furthermore, all of our representatives continue to champion rights and equality."

As for the Ulster Unionists, Dudgeon said the party was "completely relaxed" about LGBT issues.

The BBC has learned the party is in the midst of forming an LGBTQIA group called “Pride in the Union.”

'Long overdue'

Vicky Trimble is the daughter of the late Ulster Unionist Party leader Lord Trimble

The interim chairperson is Vicky Trimble, daughter of former First Minister Lord Trimble

She said the group represented "a progression within unionism".

"There's always been gay and lesbian members of the UUP but they haven’t had a voice," she said.

"This is about giving them a platform so they can be heard. In my view it's long overdue.

"As for the DUP I grew up in an era when, for example, Iris Robinson made deeply homophobic comments. So this represents less of a shift for the UUP than it would say for the DUP."

In general she said the unionist parties were seen as less "gay-friendly" than nationalist ones.

Five years ago on the night Bennington became a councillor, Jim Wells said on a BBC NI TV election special there were "fears as to where this is leading to".

So far it has led nowhere obvious.

But events at this week’s meeting of the DUP Councillors' Association suggest the party membership is moving on, if glacially slowly.