Save Ulster from Sodomy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Save Ulster from Sodomy was a political campaign launched in 1977 by the Rev. Ian Paisley, MP, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and head of the Free Presbyterian Church, to prevent the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in Northern Ireland. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful.

[edit] Origins

Homosexual acts were decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967 under the Sexual Offences Act 1967. The change in the law was not however applied to Northern Ireland or Scotland. In 1974 the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform (Northern Ireland) was established to campaign to have the act extended to Northern Ireland. In response Paisley launched Save Ulster from Sodomy, a campaign given a further boost when the law was extended to Scotland in 1980. The campaign was based on his belief that the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin, which should therefore not be legally acceptable in a state founded on Christian principles.

The campaign itself was particularly linked to the Free Presbyterian wing of the DUP, and combined religious and political rhetoric. It focused on Paisley's belief in his role to save the "Ulster people" from those influences which he believed undermined their Christian beliefs and values, namely liberalism, secularism and Rome.

In 1981 the European Court of Human Rights issued a binding ruling that the British Government was in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights by refusing to decriminalise homosexual acts between consenting adults in Northern Ireland. Consequently, despite Paisley's campaign, homosexual acts in Northern Ireland were decriminalised in 1982.