First openly gay councillor elected for DUP
The party whose founder once campaigned against the decriminalisation of homosexuality has its first openly gay councillor.
Saturday 4 May 2019 18:11, UK
Alison Bennington is the first openly gay councillor for a party that is opposed to same sex marriage.
Ms Bennington was elected to the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council to represent Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.
The founder of the pro-union and Christian party, the late Rev Ian Paisley had once campaigned to, in his words, Save Ulster from Sodomy.
Ms Bennington's victory after winning 1,053 votes was welcomed with cheers from supporters in Belfast but she declined to speak to the media.
She runs a consultancy firm and has previously worked in local government and has previously indicated her sexuality is a private matter.
The DUP's deputy leader Nigel Dodds said: "Our party is open to everybody who subscribes to the aims and objectives of our parties, wants to ensure the union is defended and delivers all our policies.
"Alison will be an excellent addition to our team, she is a very hard worker."
DUP leader Arlene Foster told UTV: "She's a committed unionist and that's why she decided to put her name forward for the DUP, as many others did right across the country, and she was selected on that basis."
Ms Bennington will be joined on the council by a former DUP mayor who served a five-month suspension earlier year after a drink driving conviction.
Thomas Hogg said: "I am overwhelmed to have been elected with 999 votes - my largest ever."
A total of 819 candidates were standing for 462 available seats across 11 council areas in Northern Ireland.
It comes ahead of next week's efforts to renew Stormont's powersharing institutions following the fatal shooting of journalist Lyra McKee, 29, by dissident republicans in Derry/Londonderry in April.