Paul Givan

For the Privy Council member, see Sir Frederick Paul Girvan (judge)

For similarly named Unionist politician, see Paul Girvan

Paul Jonathan Givan (born 12 October 1981) is a unionist politician in Northern Ireland. He was co-opted in June 2010 to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) member for Lagan Valley, replacing the previous MLA, Jeffrey Donaldson, MP.^[1] He was elected to the Assembly at the 2011 election.

Givan was educated at Laurelhill Community College, and is a graduate of the University of Ulster where he obtained a degree in Business Studies and completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice. He was first elected to Lisburn City Council in 2005, at 23 years of age;^[2] he is a creationist^[3] and was responsible for a motion calling for schools in Lisburn to teach alternatives to the theory of evolution^[4]

In 2014, a formal complaint was made by prostitute Laura Lee, for his treatment of her after she had been invited to appear at a hearing to discuss proposed changes to prostitution legislation in Northern Ireland. Mr Givan asked her how much she charged and controversially, accused her of exploiting disabled people for not giving them discounts.^[5]

In February 2015, Givan proposed a Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill, after controversy and legal action arose over a religious bakery, "Ashers Baking Company", having denied the baking of a cake in support of same-sex marriage.^[6] This bill was an attempt to enable the legal denial of services to any LGBT persons under the grounds of religious beliefs and suchlike. This motion caused uproar on popular websites like Twitter, having led to an American petition against the bill, receiving 100,000 signatures in 48 hours.^[7] Stephen Fry promptly commented on this bill, claiming it to be "sick" and further pointing that "Once again the religious right twist(ing) truth to present themselves as victims".^[8]

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