Green Party leader: DUP councillor should make more of a public issue about being gay

Malachi O’Hara made the comments on the BBC’s Sunday Politics show, while being asked about various aspects of identity politics in Northern Ireland.

Councillor Bennington, who worked for her council’s leisure department, was elected to office in Newtownabbey in 2019.

It is public knowledge that she is a lesbian, but she has been keen to avoid making an issue out of it; the News Letter is not aware of her ever doing an interview on the topic.

Belfast councillor O’Hara (whom presenter Mark Carruthers said is known to “speak for the LGBTQ+ community”) was asked on the Sunday Politics if he is disappointed that councillor Bennington has not been vocal about her sexuality.

"Unfortunately yeah,” he said.

"I wish Alison would step forward. I think it's really important that we say in terms of minority communities: we can't be what we can't see.

"Alison is the only out elected gay woman in NI. It'd be great if she could be more public and more visible.”

He called for the DUP to “finally move on, on this issue of minority sexual orientation and gender identity... they now the tide of history is against them”, and went on to say “there's a worrying backlash for trans people, and we need to tackle that head on”.

The councillor was also asked if he could “look forward to the day when we could have a conversation and don't need to touch on the issue of your sexual identity”.

"Yes I hope so,” said councillor O’Hara, saying it would be good if an interviewee “happen[ed] to be gay, black, minority ethnic, or a traveller, or a carer, [and] that's not the focus, that they're talking about the wider issues”.

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