My Partner, Lyra McKee, Would Have Been Overjoyed About The Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Sara Canning welcomes the extension of the same sex marriage bill to the North of Ireland.

MPs have voted to bring LGBT+ equality to Northern Ireland. I shed tears of happiness at the news, but they were bittersweet

It won’t always be like this. It’s going to get better.” My incredible partner, Lyra McKee, wrote these words years before we crossed paths. I remember reading her “letter to my 14-year-old-self” and being blown away by her bravery. Lyra opened up about the deep hurt so many of us felt as teenagers, and showed that families can be incredibly loving, supportive and accepting; particularly important in a place like Northern Ireland, where religious divides and conservatism still play a huge role ...

... The rest of the UK had implemented marriage equality that year, while in Northern Ireland, despite swiftly increasing public support, it remained a political football …

… We are five years behind the rest of the UK in terms of marriage equality, and four years behind the Republic of Ireland. It seems that in Northern Ireland, lagging behind our neighbours is standard. Women have lacked reproductive rights that have existed in the UK since 1967 and were legalised in “Holy Catholic Ireland” last year. Waiting is something we have got used to, and in the meantime we have become very good at campaigning, speaking out and speaking up. It often feels as if Northern Ireland is forgotten until there’s some terrorist crisis, or one of our parties is needed to prop up a minority government, then suddenly we pop up in people’s consciousness again, and everyone has an opinion on “the Northern Irish problem”.

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