Ulster peer in gay ‘deviance’ row quits

Published on 29/08/2012 01:26

THE FORMER United Ulster Unionist MP Lord Maginnis has quit the party after attacking gay marriage as “deviant”.

A UUUP member for 50 years, he announced his resignation after his claim that gay marriage was “unnatural and deviant behaviour” was said to have embarrassed party leader Mike Nesbitt and other senior members.

With reference to gay marriage, Lord Maginnis had said: “These are people that seem to take some pride expressing their particular rights. I disagree with those rights and that deviance.”

The 74-year-old from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, and the former MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, said: “I have agonised over the last three months. Currently there is no room for independent or logical thinking [within the party] and that does not suit me.”