Letter: Mervyn Storey is trying to defend the indefensible in transgenderism row
A letter from Rev Ivan Foster:
Mr Mervyn Storey only digs the hole he is in even deeper with his attempt defence of the indefensible.
It is reported in your newspaper, on Friday, August 8, (Former DUP minister Mervyn Storey hits back at accusations of 'promoting transgender ideology') that Mr Storey had issued a statement defending his role as chair the board of the Education Authority (EA) which in its ‘Guidance for Schools on Supporting Transgender Young People’, promotes respect for ‘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’.
In his statement he said: “The suggestion that I am, or have ever been, engaged in promoting transgenderism is without any foundation in fact.
“For further accuracy, I would point out that the guidance referred to intended to support transgender pupils in schools was developed [in] 2019, prior to my appointment as chairperson of the board of the EA in January of this year.”
Mr Storey simply puts his foot in his mouth by that statement!
He tells us that the guidance issued by the Education Authority, which aids and abets transgenderism, was in place when he accepted the position of chairman of the board.
He obviously knew then that he was taking on the leading role in a body that openly sided with transgenderism.
How can he now say that there is no foundation in the criticism that he helps promote this ungodly and utterly unscriptural and unnatural notion?
One cannot hold the position of chairman of an organisation which promotes transgenderism and claim that one is not a participant in the promotion of this evil.
Mr Storey should study the allegation that the Lord levelled against the Edomites who watched the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, though took no part.
“In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them,” Obadiah 1:11.
Mr Storey’s excuse will not cover or conceal his wrongdoing.
When Mr Storey was running away and refusing to answer, he was showing a little more wisdom than he is now in offering this defence.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd), Kilskeery