Increase in homophobic attacks saddens NRC Chairperson | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Increase in homophobic attacks saddens NRC Chairperson

Newry Unite in the Community equality officer and NRC Chairperson Damian McShane, has spoke out about the increase in violent attacks on the LGBT community within Newry and Mourne over the last year.

nrc4Speaking to Newry Times, Damian said he was ‘shocked and saddened’ to see that 21 homophobic attacks were recorded within the Newry and Mourne district; an increase of 5 from the previous year.

“Not only was there an increase locally, but also throughout Northern Ireland attacks and incidents increased to a mind numbing 334 , this equates to almost one a day and is an increase of 54 from the previous year,” he revealed.

“This is deeply disturbing, most especially following on from the recent marriage equality referendum in the south and the great victory on marriage equality at Stormont, that was sadly blocked by the DUP.”

Damian refuses to let the figures get him down and prefers to look on the positives of every situation. “We have to be thankful that members of LGBT community are now reaching out to the relative organisations when such attacks take place; we within the NRC and Unite are here for anyone who faces such mindless, moronic attacks.”

Local Independent councillors and Unite community activists Davy Hyland and Kevin Mc Ateer have backed Damian Mc Shane and the NRC on this issue.

Cllr Davy Hyland stated, “We are almost in the year 2016, there is no room for such mindless, degenerate behaviour in any society. These people need to catch themselves on and learn to live and let live.”

Echoing these sentiments Cllr Kevin Mc Ateer added, “I am shocked we have people living amongst us, who have nothing more constructive to offer, other than than abusing a human being over their sexual orientation.

He added, “We as a people have to stand together, regardless of political affiliation and say enough is enough; we can’t let this continue and if we do, some unfortunate person could lose their lives.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=53817

Posted by on Nov 19 2015. Filed under Community, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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