Transgenderism: DUP man says Burke family's attempted confrontation at church is 'scandalous'

Jonathan Craig, a councillor in Lisburn and a member of Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Church, said “I just think it’s scandalous what they’re doing, and it’s wrong”.

The Burkes have recently been seeking to confront DUP members over claims they have condoned transgenderism (claims which are denied).

This tactic began earlier this month, when the Burkes filmed themselves pursuing Education Authority chairman and DUP councillor Mervyn Storey with questions at Hebron Free Presbyterian Church in Ballymoney.

It all stems from the fact that the Education Authority has guidance out for teachers, effectively telling them to accept pupils' new identities if they claim to have switched gender.

For example, it tells teachers that they "should respect a young person’s wishes and use their preferred name/pronoun in everyday interactions", and that "staff should give a transgender pupil access to toilets which match their gender identity, unless there is a good reason not to do so".

Whilst Mr Storey is chairman of the Education Authority board, he has stressed that he was not in place when the guidance was drawn up in 2019 and that he "clearly does not endorse or promote transgenderism".

This week DUP MLA Edwin Poots said that members of the Burke family had come to his church – Hillsborough Free Presbyterian – on Sunday, looking for him.

Mr Poots was recently in the headlines when he denied ever being briefed about or giving approval to NI's children's transgender clinic, created in 2014 during his time as health minister.

However, Enoch Burke (one of the Christian family's most prominent campaigners) has since indicated that their real target last Sunday was fellow Hillsborough church member Mr Craig – who, like Mr Storey, is a member of the Education Authority board.

Mr Burke said in a statement: "Mr Craig, a Free Presbyterian, has been silent while the organisation he helps to run implements and enforces transgender ideology in every school in Northern Ireland from pre-school to secondary level.

"Only recently Mr Craig stated publicly that 'our children need protection from this madness' – speaking of the gender identity clinic in Belfast.

"In reality, however, Mr Craig is overseeing the quiet but relentless indoctrination of generations of young people with transgender and LGBTQ+ ideology."

Councillor Craig said that he had been on holiday when the Burkes called at the church.

"I've a very, very simple response to this," he told the News Letter.

"First of all, the board does not promote transgender ideology.

"What was actually put through the board was a set of guidance to try and help schools deal with children that are going through the transformation process, and it's something which a number of schools have had to deal with, so they just wanted to know legally what are their responsibilities, what have they to do, how do they adjust for these pupils that are changing their identity from one sex to another."

He also said it was "pure guidance" and "there'll be no teacher in Northern Ireland hauled over the coals for either following or not following these guidance rules".

He added: "Personally, as a Christian and a Free Presbyterian I felt there were things in there which personally I couldn’t agree with, regarding, to me, if you're born a male you remain a male, no matter what way you change yourself."

He said he and fellow DUP member Nelson McCausland (who has since left the board) had objected to the guidance at the time in 2019.

“What do they expect us to do, like?” he said.

"Do they really expect me to stand down and walk away from the board, and hand it over to someone who will completely identify with those rules?

"I don’t see how that helps the situation.”