An independent survey on party policies and past actions related to the support for LGBT+ rights has been made available online.

The research was conducted by a Belfast based rights activist, Ruth McCarthy, to outline how giving your vote to a particular party may affect you as a member of the LGBT+ community.

The insightful report is an incredibly worthwhile piece of research to digest when deciding which political party to pledge your support to in the Northern Ireland elections.

Ruth contacted each individual party and posed a series of questions to get an in-depth update on where each party was sitting on important LGBT+ issues. The questions were as follows:

1a) Does your party visibly support LGBTQ equality issues in your party manifesto, on your website and in election campaigning materials? If YES, please give examples. If NO, please state why.

1b) Please give any other examples of how your party supports LGBTQ visibility.

2a) What is your party policy on tackling homophobia and transphobia through education and training in schools?

2b) What is your party’s record in actively tackling homophobia and transphobia through education and training in schools?

3a) What is your party’s policy on addressing the serious health inequalities faced by LGBTQ people?

3b) What is your party’s record in actively addressing the serious health inequalities faced by LGBTQ people?

4a) Does your party support Equal Marriage for same-sex couples in Northern Ireland?

4b) What is your party’s record in actively supporting Equal Marriage for same-sex couples?

5a) Does your party support the Conscience Clause? 5b What is your party’s record in actively opposing the Conscience Clause?

6a) Does your party support a total ban on gay men giving blood?

6b) What’s your party’s track record in opposing the blood ban for gay men?

7) Does your party have any LGBTQ-identified candidates standing in the 2015 General Election?

8) Does your party have any mandatory training or education for staff around LGBTQ issues? If NO, do you plan to change this? Please outline when.

9) Trans communities in the UK And Ireland have united to produce a simple three point manifesto that they are asking all 2015 Election candidates to support or decline. The three principles are: to regard trans individuals as equal citizens with equal rights, to empower trans individuals to be authorities on all aspects of their own lives, and to encourage diverse, representative, realistic and positive portrayals of trans individuals. Does your party support or decline the three main principles?

Download the PDF version of the report here or explore the document via the ISSUU document viewer below.