CSI: LGBT
First of all for those of you unfamiliar with these acronyms, CSI doesn't, for the purposes of this blog stand for Crime Scene Investigation.
Instead it refers to the Stormont Cohesion Sharing and Integration strategy, the so called "Shared Future" policy. Progress on CSI was an Alliance condition for taking on the Justice job. Before David Ford signed on the dotted line Sinn Fein and the DUP confirmed they had agreed a paper. However at the time of writing the CSI strategy still hasn't been published - instead it has been circulated to Stormont departments for their opinions before going out to a wider consultation.
However today we got a glimpse of some of the detail courtesy of the LGBT activists who rallied on the steps at Stormont to mark the International Day of Action Against Homophobia (LGBT for the acronymically deficient stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender).
Last week a regular reader of this blog tipped me off that gay activists were disappointed with the draft in circulation of the CSI strategy. Today John O'Doherty from of the Rainbow Project confirmed that whilst the draft refers to homosexuality in relation to combatting hate crime and implementing equality measures, it does not include gay groups within the ambit of its proposed "good relations" policy. That is limited to religious and ethnic groups. Mr O'Doherty compared this to Iris Robinson's atitude: willing to condemn violent attacks on gay individuals whilst unwilling to be inclusive of gays in a wider sense.
The Rainbow Project's criticism provoked a lively debate on this afternoon's Stormont Live with the SDLP's Alex Attwood arguing that the gay community must be included in the good relations strategy. Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson sympathised with that view, but initially argued that those who drafted the policy were boxed in by previous legislation. However as the discussion continued she seemed to concede that the real reason Sinn Fein couldn't deliver more to the LGBT community was the attitude of the DUP.
No doubt this will provoke some responses, on either side of the argument, when the paper is finally published. But even if the gay community presses for change, the DUP will have a veto over what change, if any, is incorporated into the final CSI strategy.
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