Keep up the great work everyone. The petition continues to grow and word is spreading far and wide about the #EndTheVeto campaign.

If you haven’t already signed the petition you can follow this link.

Support is pouring in from across Northern Ireland, Ireland, the UK and across the world as the campaign nears 4,000 signatures.

We are asking everyone who has already signed to get all of their friends and family involved in helping to spread the word. Each signature of support makes a world of difference.
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Last month, the online anti-homophobia campaigning platform STOP-homophobia joined the campaign. The petition is currently being broadcast daily to over 200,000 Twitter Followers and over 730,000 Facebook Fans to raise awareness of the campaign on a worldwide stage.

Prominent human rights activist Peter Tatchell last week added his support for the campaign.

“The DUP is going against the basic democratic principle that everyone should be equal before the law. The Petition of Concern is being abused by the DUP to block equality. It was never intended to be used to block equal gay civil rights.”

peter tatchell northern irelandIn response to the DUP leader blocking @YesEquality2016 on Twitter, he said he believes blocking accounts should only be reserved for “those accounts that are linked to abuse, harassment and violent threats.”

“Blocking does not encourage discussion and debate, which are the corner stones of a democratic society” he added.

Sinn Fein MLA, Caitríona Ruane, also voiced her support for the campaign saying:

“Marriage equality threatens no one or any religious doctrine. Sinn Féin promises to raise the issue until it is implemented into legislation that gives all couples equal legal rights in marriage”

Alliance party LGBT member Micky Murray had this to say about the petition and the journey towards equal marriage in Northern Ireland.

“Alliance LGBT are proud to support this petition, for too long the DUP have misused the PoC to block Marriage Equality. It’s taken 5 debates and 5 votes in the assembly to win a majority vote in favour of Marriage Equality, politicians are slowly catching up with the public view on the issue and a party that labeled themselves as democratic should be willing to give the people of the country what they want no matter their personal view. No one is asking the DUP to endorse Marriage Equality, simply to comply with democracy and stop using the PoC to block a motion that they themselves have a personal, not political, dislike of. The fight for LGBT equality grows stronger and stronger every day and the momentum is still building.”

The run up to the election is an ideal time to highlight this issue and show the Democratic Unionist Party that they will not go unchallenged on these actions any longer.

See the image below this post to see some of the words, phrases and campaigns associated with past and present members the DUP to get a gauge of what has already been swept under the carpet and dismissed.

Petitions have been signed on this website in relation to marriage equality in Northern Ireland before but on this occasion we are asking everyone to say enough is enough and stick with us to keep up pressure on the DUP to deal with this issue.

Thank you to everyone for the support and please do whatever you can to encourage more signatures on the petition. In the meantime you can tweet the campaign at petition_ni and we’ll bring you more updates soon.

endyvetoy