Meet the team behind Kilkenny's first ever Pride parade – ‘We were the only county without one, we had to act'
This July, Kilkenny will host its first Pride festival in over a decade and its first ever Pride parade
Today at 05:00
This July is a historic month for both Kilkenny and the LGBTQI+ community in Ireland.
Ten years after the people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in Ireland, another milestone in Ireland's quest for equality has been reached.
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CBS News
28 minutes ago
- CBS News
The Trump administration's "divide and conquer" approach to LGBTQ rights
In Marsha P. Johnson's final interview before her death in 1992, the activist later recognized as an icon of the movement that preceded LGBTQ rights in the United States explained why she, a transgender woman, championed a cause that often excluded her. "I've been walking for gay rights all these years," Johnson said, referencing early Pride marches in a conversation that appears in a 2012 documentary about her life. "Because you never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights." Since then, social and political wins over time grew to encompass everyone represented by the acronym LGBTQ, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. But that's become less true in recent years, as lawmakers in Tennessee, Texas and a number of other states repeatedly pushed legislation to restrict access to gender-affirming care, bathrooms and sports teams for transgender people. Anti-trans sentiment was central to President Trump's 2024 campaign, LGBTQ advocates say, and it followed him into office. Many of his directives this term have closely mirrored Project 2025, a conservative policy agenda that explicitly prioritizes eroding LGBTQ rights. A "divide and conquer" approach From health care bans, to sports bans, bathroom bans, a military ban and attempts to erase non-binary gender pronouns from the federal system, Mr. Trump's most conspicuous threats to LGBTQ rights specifically target trans people, a pattern that has drawn accusations of scapegoating from his critics, given that trans people make up an estimated 1% or less of the U.S. population. LGBTQ advocates also see it as a tactic to sow division in the community. "Donald Trump ran for president on an age-old platform of divide and conquer," said Brandon Wolf, the national press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization. "Inside the LGBTQ+ community, Donald Trump ran his campaign saying, I'm not targeting all LGBTQ+ people, just the trans people, and if you sacrifice that community, perhaps you will be spared." While polling data showed most LGBTQ voters didn't choose to elect him, Mr. Trump has gained increasingly loud support from a faction of gay conservatives who disavow the "radical LGBT left" and insist his policies aren't at odds with their personal freedoms. When the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced the upcoming termination of part of its 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline dedicated to helping LGBTQ youth, the gay conservative group Log Cabin Republicans called related media coverage "fake news." On TikTok, a small but popular band of conservative gay influencers post videos to similarly defend Mr. Trump's record. "Rights I've lost in Trump's America as a gay man," reads the caption of one of them, followed by an empty list numbered 1 through 5. In the comments section of another, a TikTok user responded to a thread outlining the current administration's anti-LGBTQ actions by saying, "None of that has anything to do with us being gay." Trump's orders On Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump declared in his televised address to the American public that "only two genders," male and female, would be recognized going forward by the federal government. He signed an executive order to enforce that within hours of being sworn in. Titled "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," the wide-ranging order included instructions for the State Department to prohibit trans people from using gender markers that reflect their identities on official documents, like passports, and instead require that those markers align with the document holders' reproductive organs "at conception." "The Trump administration's passport policy attacks the foundations of the right to privacy and the freedom for all people to live their lives safely and with dignity," said Jessie Rossman, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts, which has made headway in a lawsuit aiming to reverse the new rule, in a statement. "We will continue to fight to stop this unlawful policy once and for all." Like many of Mr. Trump's executive orders, that one has faced steep challenges in the courts, and legal experts say its long-term applicability is uncertain as some elements contradict the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which codified discrimination protections for all LGBTQ employees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The same conflict exists in Mr. Trump's orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, in which he instructed federal departments to "correct" what he called a "misapplication" of the Bostock ruling in their policies. Their uncertain futures aside, LGBTQ advocacy and rights groups feel those policies and others have already reaped consequences on the community at large — "the predictable result," said Wolf, "of a divide and conquer campaign." In response to Mr. Trump's directive to end "radical indoctrination in K-12 schools," the Department of Defense banned books with themes involving gender identity, sexual orientation and race from its schools for children in military families, which receive federal funding, according to a separate lawsuit filed by the ACLU. A textbook focused on LGBTQ figures in American history was tossed out under the ban. Meanwhile, corporations scrambling to comply with anti-DEI orders eliminated or scaled back their partnerships with Pride celebrations around the country after Mr. Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center in February forced WorldPride organizers to regroup because events were either canceled or relocated from the venue. And, in May, the Human Rights Campaign issued a memo warning that Mr. Trump's "big, beautiful bill," a "skinny" budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, would cut $2.67 billion in federal funding from programs that support LGBTQ people. Among its most urgent concerns were the administration's plans to significantly downsize public health programs for HIV/AIDS prevention as well as Justice Department programs that investigate anti-LGBTQ hate crimes, in addition to sweeping cuts to resources for the trans community. Asked where LGBTQ rights stand under the Trump administration, a White House spokesperson pointed to Mr. Trump's past appointments of openly gay judges and officials such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in addition to two initiatives during his first term to decriminalize homosexuality globally and end the HIV epidemic by 2030, although his 2026 budget proposal would hamper that. "President Trump's historic reelection and the overall MAGA movement is a big tent welcome for all and home to a large swath of the American people," said the spokesperson, Harrison Fields, in a statement. "The President continues to foster a national pride that should be celebrated daily, and he is honored to serve all Americans. The American people voted for a return to common sense, and the President is delivering on every campaign promise supported by 77 million voters and is ushering in our Golden Age." "An anti-LGBTQ administration" In addition to tangible policies, advocates say that attitudes toward LGBTQ people from the nation's highest office are contributing to higher incidences of violence against LGBTQ people and likely foreshadow harms still to come. "Overall, it is clearly an anti-LGBTQ administration," said Sarah-Kate Ellis, the president and chief operating officer at the LGBTQ media organization GLAAD. "And I think that they are consistently signaling that they want to roll back all of our hard-won rights." Mr. Trump and those in his orbit have repeatedly cast LGBTQ people and activities in a negative light. While announcing leadership shifts at the Kennedy Center in February, the president penned a social media post that pledged, in capital letters, to ensure the arts forum would no longer host drag shows "or other anti-American propaganda." His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, later said the country needs "less LGBTQ graduate majors" in an interview on Fox News criticizing Harvard University. According to advocates and academics, the administration frequently relies on political strategies to marginalize trans people that have been used against other groups in the past. The term "groomers," for example, is a historically anti-gay trope, and "gender ideology" originally demonized feminism. There were also notable moments of silence from the Trump administration, which did not acknowledge Pride Month, even as a global Pride festival took place for several weeks between May and June in Washington, D.C. LGBTQ people say that wasn't necessarily a surprise after watching their visibility decline in national forums this year, starting with mentions of "lesbian," "bisexual," "gay," "transgender," "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" being scrubbed from the White House website the day after Mr. Trump's inauguration, in a flashback to his first term. References to trans people disappeared around the same time from the website for the Stonewall National Monument, considered the birthplace of gay liberation, in a move that sparked particular outcry. Marcia P. Johnson was among the pioneering trans activists who remain named on the site despite that change. Where do LGBTQ rights stand in America? Advocates for LGBTQ rights and others in the community say they're wary of what may come next. Echoing discourse that has persisted online since Mr. Trump's campaign, Ellis said she expects a right-wing push to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, is imminent. "Our view on this is that they will continually attack our community and find any way to dismantle our community," she said, of the right-wing forces propelling Mr. Trump. "They've only focused on trans people because they are such a small population and so marginalized. But they will go after our marriages. They will go after our families. It has always been the anti-LGBTQ movement at the center of this." At least nine state legislatures have introduced bills to reverse the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling since Mr. Trump returned to Washington. Earlier this month, the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to pass a resolution that calls for the same. LGBTQ advocates emphasize that marriage equality is settled law, and research from Gallup and GLAAD demonstrate that a vast majority of Americans continue to support it. But some still worry the path to overturning Obergefell could be akin to the one that led to the fall of Roe v. Wade, which kept abortion legal for 50 years before Trump-appointed justices tipped the Supreme Court bench and struck it down.
The Journal
42 minutes ago
- The Journal
From less than a dozen marchers to tens of thousands: A history of Dublin Pride
Lauren Boland FIFTY-ONE YEARS AGO, on a mild, dry day in late June, a small group of less than a dozen people marched through Dublin to protest outside the British embassy. It was 1974 – the year the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association was founded, the year of the UVF's Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the year that Transition Year was first introduced to secondary schools – and the ten activists who took to the streets on the 27th of June were fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. At the time, same-sex relations were criminalised under the law, and they had been so since the 1800s under legislation that the British state imposed on Ireland which the fledgling Irish State had never repealed. The group of activists – which included David Norris, who went on to be Ireland's longest-serving senator – gathered outside the embassy to demonstrate against the laws that Britain had introduced and which were still criminalising homosexuality in Ireland more than a century later. 'That was really the beginning of what was then called the gay rights movement in Ireland,' said historian Mary McAuliffe. Today, in many countries around the world, June marks the festival of Pride – an event which is both political, in its calls for LGBTQ+ equality, and personal, in the opportunity that it gives members of the community to come together and celebrate their identities in the face of discrimination and oppression. Pride events like parades are held in many towns across Ireland throughout the summer, with the largest each year taking place in Dublin at the end of June. It's attended by tens of thousands of people – a long way from the group of just ten activists calling for decriminalisation outside the British embassy in 1974. The start of a movement The celebration of Pride in Ireland today has its roots in the boots-on-the-ground activism of the 1970s and 1980s. '1974 saw the foundation of the sexual liberation movement in Ireland. Second-wave feminism had begun, and then sexual liberation, and the idea of self-determined sexuality and decriminalisation of homosexuality,' McAuliffe, a lecturer at University College Dublin specialising in the history of Irish women and gender, told The Journal . 'There were a whole load of issues that people were beginning to galvanise around and organise around.' One of those organisers was Tonie Walsh, an activist who has been at the helm of projects and organisations over the years like the National LGBT Federation, the Hirchfeld Centre – an LGBTQ+ community space in Temple Bar in the 1980s – and the Irish Queer Archive. It was in 1979 that the first formal week-long event then known as Gay Pride was organised by the National LGBT Federation. In Ireland, there was no political or commercial appetite in the 1970s to sponsor or support events linked to LGBTQ+ people. The community had to have its own back. 'The Hirschfeld Centre was an example of a community resource that provided the people and the ideas and, crucially, the money needed to to roll out a full week festival of talks and pop up theater and live discos and live panel discussions, and all the other things that would happen during during Pride.' (The Centre burned down in 1987.) Declan Flynn In 1982, a 31-year-old gay man named Declan Flynn was brutally attacked in Fairview Park in Dublin and died from his injuries. A group of teenagers and young men between the ages of 14 and 19 saw him receiving a kiss on the cheek from another man while he was walking home through the park. They attacked him, stole the £4 that was in his pocket, and left him to die. The group were found guilty of manslaughter but were let away with suspended sentences and served no time in prison. 'That was a horrendous murder and the teenage boys who were charged with his murder were more or less just slapped on the wrist by the judge, and so it seemed like gay lives, queer lives, were seen as lesser, as not having the same value,' McAuliffe said. It sparked a protest march to Fairview Park in March of 1983 and a Pride parade that June, which went from St Stephen's Green to the GPO on O'Connell Street. 'It's impossible to forget the '83 March. There was only about 150 of us. I was one of the speakers, along with Jodie Crone had come out on The Late Late Show three years beforehand,' Walsh recalled. 'We redesignated the GPO as the 'Gay Persons Organisation'. It was a great day, because it was the first time it felt like we were reclaiming the streets, particularly in the light of homophobic violence and anti-women violence that was happening at the time in Ireland,' he said. But the 1980s were a difficult time to organise Pride marches. Many members of the LGBTQ+ community were not safe enough or comfortable enough to come out publicly. There were few resources at organisers' disposal. And, most hauntingly, the community was battling on another frontline at the same time: AIDS. 'The organisation that was necessary to run something as enormous as a parade just wasn't there because people's focus shifted towards the AIDS pandemic,' Walsh said. 'When you look back at the early history of Pride, what you see is a small group of people trying to do everything themselves. This was in a culture where there was no state funding of any sort, and corporate funding was didn't really exist, not to the extent needed,' he said. 'A week of events and running a parade demanded huge amounts of labour and also huge amounts of money, and both of these things were in short supply, particularly during the AIDS pandemic.' For much of the decade, there 'wasn't enough people to warrant doing a march or parade – so few people were publicly out'. 'The high points of Pride then was a picnic in Merrion Square, a balloon release on St Stephen's Green, a leaflet drop around all the major shopping precincts explaining the history of the Stonewall Riots and giving people a shorthand into the history of LGBT civil rights on the island of Ireland and of Ireland,' Walsh described. The 1988 Pride march. Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland The fight for decriminalisation At the same time as Pride was developing, there was a campaign spearheaded by David Norris to push the government to decriminalise same-sex relations. Norris brought the Irish government to the European Commission of Human Rights and then the European Court of Human Rights, argued that the criminalisation law violated the European Convention on Human Rights. The government actively fought to preserve the law. State papers from the 70s and 80s that were released to the National Archives in 2023, examined by The Journal , show the extent of homophobic attitudes embedded in the civil service at the time, like fearing decriminalisation would lead to 'public displays of homosexual relationships' and considering whether to leverage the AIDS crisis to defend keeping the law in place . Despite the State's extensive defence efforts, Norris won his case before the European Court of Human Rights and the government passed legislation that decriminalised homosexuality on 24 June 1993. That year's Pride in Dublin took place two days later on the 26th. For Eddie McGuinness – who would later go on to be the Director of Dublin Pride from 2017 for six years – it was his first time attending the parade. He's never forgotten it. 'A thousand of us stood outside the Central Bank and celebrated who we were, because it was the first time the State actually recognised us as part of our nation,' said McGuinness, who is also the founder of the Outing Festival for LGBTQ+ music and arts. 'The feeling was scary but yet amazing. I still remember it,' he said. For Tonie Walsh, it's also a Pride that stands out strongly in his memory. Advertisement 'A group of people from Act Up Dublin – not surprisingly, all AIDS activists – decided to reinstate the parade in 1992. By 1993 there was about 1,000 people on parade, between 800 and 1,000 people, with a rally on the steps of the Central Bank,' Walsh said. 'Thom McGinty, The Diceman, did a striptease dressed up as prison convict because the government had reformed the old British legislation two days before – perfect timing.' Thom McGinty was an actor and street performer from Scotland known for performing as a 'stillness artist' and 'human statue' in Dublin city. He was a beloved figure in the LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s and 1990s but died from complications of AIDS in 1995 at the age of 42. 'A lot of people who stood on those steps of the Central Bank are no longer with us,' said McGuinness. 'The likes of Thom McGinty, the Diceman… Junior Larkin, who was one of the youngest activists who had set up the first-ever LGBT youth group in Ireland, is no longer with us, and is sometimes forgotten about in our history,' he said. 'A lot of activists who were there back then are no longer with us. But there's still some of us who are fighting the fight, and still keep smiling and trying to make the rainbow shine even brighter.' Around 5,000 people took part in the 2010 march. Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland Women in Ireland's LGBTQ+ community Pride and the movement for LGBTQ+ equality gained momentum in many countries after the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in New York City, when people attending the Stonewall gay bar fought back against police who were targeting them. As Pride parades developed, lesbians also started to organise 'Dyke Marches', which were for women in the LGBTQ+ community to create a space for them and to highlight the specific challenges they were facing in society. Ireland's first Dyke March was held on 26 June 1998 (and the first one in Dublin in decades was also organised for this year). 'Women, lesbians, have always been part of Pride, but there were also the separate Dyke Marches,' McAuliffe outlined. 'They were always inclusive of trans women. Irish LGBT activism has always been trans-inclusive, for the most part,' she said. 'In many ways, as a historian of LGBT histories, oftentimes, the majority of what you're talking or researching or reading about is about gay male homosexuality, mainly the campaign to decriminalise. That's very, very important. But you often see lesbians are kind of invisible in the narratives,' she said. 'It's important that lesbian visibility, trans-inclusive lesbian visibility, is there on the streets, in our histories, in our narratives of who and what we are in our activism. 'Women's lives often include motherhood, and there are issues around that still to be campaigned for, because lesbians are women, women who need, for example, full reproductive rights, women who need safety in society, women who've experienced sexual violence, domestic violence, all of those things.' McAuliffe's first experience of attending a Pride parade was in the late 1990s. 'Like many people, going on the first one, anytime I saw a camera pointed at me, I was hiding, because you may be marching down the street, but you're not that out and proud. It takes a while,' she said. 'I do remember that sense of belonging and community while at the same time feeling a little bit worried about being seen – and wanting to be seen. 'I think for younger people, it gives a way of feeling empowered, of maybe taking those extra steps in the coming out journey, because you have been with your community for a day and having great fun, great craic, and being involved in the political aspect of marching.' Into the 21st century Celebrations of Pride in Dublin and across the country have grown larger and stronger over the years. 'From 1993 onwards, what you saw was a really progressive development of pride, not just in Dublin but in the other urban centres around Ireland,' Walsh said. According to Walsh, that development was enabled by decriminalisation, by corporate sponsors starting to view the community as being 'of value to consumers' in a way that hadn't been a case before decriminalisation, and by a wider pool of people coming out in greater numbers and bringing skills with them that helped to organise Pride events. 'It is still a fabulous day out. Since my very first Pride event in Pride Week in 1980, I've missed very few,' Walsh said. 'There are a few that stand out over the years. Listening to Panti [Bliss] rabble-rousing on Wood Quay when the rally for the Pride Parade was in Wood Quay in the amphitheatre. That would have been 2014 or 2015. Myself, I remember being Grand Marshal in 2008 and getting everybody, four and a half thousand people in Wood Quay, to sing 'to be queer is to be special',' he recalled. More than 20 years after decriminalisation in 1993, another major step forward came in 2015 when the referendum to allow same-sex marriage in Ireland passed by a wide majority. 'I remember the one the year marriage equality was passed. That was fantastic. Such a celebratory one,' McAuliffe said. Two years later, Eddie McGuiness – a connoisseur of Prides in Ireland and abroad – became the Director of Dublin Pride. 'One of my biggest honours has always been to have gone on to manage and develop Dublin Pride – my first type of Pride – for nearly seven years, only stepping away the last couple of years because I was diagnosed with cancer,' McGuiness said. He also fondly remembers hosting Pride in his home town of Dundalk when it had its first significant parade a couple of years ago. The Pride parades in Limerick and Cork 'always give [him] a warm feeling', while Carlow Pride is 'so quirky and fun; the volunteers there put so much time and effort into it'. David Norris marches in the 2019 parade. Leah Farrell Leah Farrell The politics of Pride Within the LGBTQ+ community, there's a debate that's rolled on for many years about what the nature of Pride should be – whether it's right that it's taken on a celebratory, festival nature, or whether it should go back to its roots as a protest march. 'From the early 2000s, the marches became more like Mardi Gras. They were less political – but I think pride is political, and I think it is important that it is political and that it remains political,' said McAuliffe. 'Even though we have marriage equality in Ireland, there's still a lot of transphobia and there's rising homophobia and lesbophobia, and it's very important for people to still campaign around inclusion and acceptance of all in society,' she said. 'The far right are very homophobic, very transphobic, a lot of them… they don't want queer Irish people, they don't want trans Irish people, they don't want lesbians and gays. That has brought around a rise in virulent homophobia and transphobia, both online and in real life, and so I think we need to be more political around pride.' McGuinness said that 'when you look at the Pride movement, starting in New York in 1969 with the Stonewall riots to where we are now, there is still resistance within mainstream politics and society'. 'This is not just an LGBT issue. This is an immigrant issue. This is a women's issue. No matter who you are, if you're a minority, if you're a Traveller, right across the board, so-called mainstream society tries to downtrodden you, and we need to stand up to that. That is what Pride is all about. It's giving a voice to those who don't have a voice,' he said. For Walsh, Pride is about 'being visible and making a statement about unfinished political business, and it's a statement of celebration – but it is also an invitation by Irish LGBT people to mainstream Ireland to join us on our journey of liberation and acceptance and visibility'. 'It's important that mainstream Ireland embraces that invitation, understanding that the journey that Irish queers have taken to get to the place we find ourselves in today hasn't just been about us. That journey is about Irish society finding its collective empathy and understanding,' Walsh said. 'Every year, you hear some people asking, 'why do they need Pride?' But remember, people are still being beaten up and murdered in some parts of the world. We had homophobic murders in Sligo just a few years ago. Trans men and women are still being beaten up with impunity,' he said. 'There is much work to done. There are still people living in the shadows, even in Ireland, for all of our liberalism. Pride is a reminder that we need to turn our attention to all of that unfinished business.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
The Journal
42 minutes ago
- The Journal
Man arrested after Ballymena 'spread with slurry overnight' ahead of town's first Pride parade
LAST UPDATE | 34 mins ago A MAN HAS BEEN arrested after slurry was spread on streets in Ballymena and shopfronts have allegedly been vandalised with spray paint ahead of a Pride parade that is due to take place in the Co Antrim town this afternoon. Business owners this morning opened their shutters on Ballymoney Street and Greenvale Street, close to the Town Centre shopping centre, to find that slurry had been spread up and down the roads overnight. Family-owned businesses and their staff are currently cleaning up the mess ahead of the town's first ever Pride parade this afternoon , which was due to finish up on Greenvale Street. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have said that one man, aged 19, was arrested this morning in connection with their investigation. Police said that the incident, which happened just before 3am this morning, is being treated as a hate crime. The 19-year-old was arrested after being accused of criminal damage and possession of a blade, the PSNI said. Local SDLP councillor Denise Johnston wrote on X: 'I am hearing that the town centre in Ballymena has been spread with slurry overnight ahead of the town's first Pride rally. The local businesses are currently cleaning it up.' Advertisement 'I am disgusted by those bigots who would commit such an act and hope they will have been caught on CCTV,' she added. Tánaiste Simon Harris has described the incident as a 'vile act'. 'Love is love,' he wrote in a post to social media. 'It's awful,' one Greenvale shop owner told The Journal . 'It's all up the lampposts as well.' Alliance leader Naomi Long posted to X this morning: 'I despair the mentality of those who spread slurry on the streets of their town motivated by hate and bigotry. Disgusting in every sense of the word.' Shop owners reported the incident to the police, it is understood. Poster for the first Pride Parade in Ballymena, which will take place this afternoon. Mid & East Antrim Pride Mid & East Antrim Pride Nicole, a manager of the K&G McAtamney Butchery & Deli on Ballymoney Street, said that when workers arrived at the car park this morning there was slurry the whole way from there to the butchers. 'It's all around the town from Ballymoney street to here, and it's particularly bad on Greenvale Street,' she said. 'The vendors here have been out all morning getting involved in cleaning it, including our workers.' Related Reads From less than a dozen marchers to tens of thousands: A history of Dublin Pride Nicole told The Journal : 'We don't understand what would compel somebody to do this and for it to coincide with our first pride event, which is a positive thing bringing people into the town, is just vile.' 'We're halfway up the street cleaning it now, and it's been all hands on deck, but it's been deeply unpleasant for our staff, and of course our customers.' Ballymena made headlines around the world after three nights of rioting earlier this month in which over 40 PSNI officers were injured. PSNI said the rioting erupted after a vigil to protest the alleged sexual assault in the town was 'hijacked' by 'racist thuggery'. Curtis Lee, the organiser of the Pride parade in Ballymena which will take place this afternoon, told The Journal: 'The committee's opinion was that, no matter what, we're going ahead with this because to cancel would be to give into fear.' There will be protests today from four evangelical Christian groups. One of the four groups protesting is United Christian Witness, and the other three are local church groups. With reporting by Eimer McAuley & Diarmuid Pepper Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
