WILLIAM OF Orange, celebrated by the unionist tradition in Northern Ireland, was gay and it was time unionist and Orange Order politicians stopped covering up this aspect of their hero's life, a leading campaigner for gay rights said in Belfast last night.
Peter Tatchell, who has campaigned for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights for over 40 years, was delivering the keynote address, Love is a Human Right, at a lecture hosted by Amnesty International, to mark Gay Pride Week in the North.
"Sadly homophobia still runs deep in Northern Ireland" and many unionist politicians were the most bigoted against gays and lesbians, he said.
"A survey last year found Northern Ireland was the most bigoted country in western Europe and this bigotry was particularly acute when directed towards lesbian and gay people.
"The survey found 36 per cent of people here would not want a gay person as a neighbour. This homophobia exists even at the highest level of public office."
He said MLA and MP Iris Robinson, for example, had made "something of a career" of being a "gay basher" with "her sensationalist and inflammatory language" against the gay and lesbian community. "She has suggested gay people could be cured as if being gay was some awful disease that required treatment. More recently she has said homosexuality was more vile than child sexual abuse.
"If Iris Robinson had said these things about black or Jewish people she would have been forced to resign. She should now resign. But what is more shocking is the fact that her husband, Peter Robinson, the First Minister, has not disassociated himself from these sensationalist and ignorant comments. This must call into question his attitude to the gay and lesbian community whose welfare he is responsible for as leader of the Government of Northern Ireland."
Mr Tatchell said there was a "great deal of hypocrisy among unionist politicians in the North". They supported discrimination against gay and lesbian people.
"Many have opposed gay supportive legislation that has been passed in the UK over the past decade. They fought tooth-and- nail to maintain a discriminatory age of consent for gay men in Northern Ireland.
"They have supported a ban on gay men in the armed forces. They sought to block the enactment of same-sex civil partnerships. They have taken this strongly homophobic stance, while at the same time they had lauded their hero, William of Orange, who was gay. Even worse, they have conspired to cover-up his homosexuality.
"William of Orange had male lovers, most notably William Bentinck whom William made Earl of Portland and Arnold Von Keppel who was a mere page when William met him and made him Earl of Albemarl. Neither of these men did anything to justify their elevation. The only common factor was that they were constant and intimate partners of William of Orange." He said that throughout the reign of William there were many political satires and poems about his homosexuality.
"Censoring William III's homosexuality is plain hypocrisy. It is time for the truth to be told."
Looking at the international situation, Mr Tatchell said in more than 70 countries to be gay or lesbian was still a crime punishable by long-term imprisonment or even execution. "Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan maintain the death penalty for same-sex relationships. In certain regions of Commonwealth countries such as Pakistan and Nigeria, Islamic Sharia law prevails under which homosexuals can be stoned to death."
He said there was still no UN convention that explicitly protected gays and lesbians against discrimination and also criticised the Vatican for "lining up with Islamic states to repeatedly block UN initiatives on discriminationcommunities".