Trimble’s U-turn on gay marriage after daughter’s wedding
Nobel Peace Prize winner first met Vicky’s girlfriend when she was coming out of bathroom in a duvet
DAVID Trimble has revealed he dropped his opposition to gay marriage after meeting his daughter’s lesbian lover – while she was dressed in just a duvet.
The former Ulster Unionist leader, one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement, previously voted against introducing same-sex civil partnerships in Northern Ireland in 2004.
But the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a former first minister of Northern Ireland, told Britain’s House of Lords that his daughter Vicky had married her partner, Rosalind Stephens.
He was not only happily present at the ceremony, but walked his daughter down the aisle.
Mr Trimble, 74, told peers that a change in his views was ‘forced upon me’ when his daughter married another woman.
It came as the House of Commons passed amendments to a bill that will see gay marriage legalised in the North – if the Stormont Assembly is not restored by October.
But daughter Vicky, 35, has now revealed that her father had been relaxed about her sexuality long before the ceremony.
She said: ‘I’m a little surprised at Dad’s wording as he has been supportive of our relationship ever since he encountered Rosalind coming out of the bathroom wrapped in a duvet!’
She added that Mr Trimble had been ‘very happy’ when she announced her engagement to photographer Ms Stephens, and he was a key figure at their wedding at Achnagairn castle in Scotland.
Ms Trimble, who lives with her wife in east London, said: ‘It was really just like any other marriage.
‘He played an active role and gave a very touching speech. I think a lot of people wh o think they are against same-sex marriage may never have encountered someone who is gay.
‘[My father] was against samesex partnerships and now he has Speech: David Trimble had that personal experience, he realises it is just like any other relationship.’
Ms Stephens said of being face to face with the veteran politician while she was wrapped in a duvet: ‘That was a moment I will never forget.’
Mr Trimble told fellow peers during the parliamentary debate on Northern Ireland: ‘Those are delicate matters.
‘I have found myself taking a particular position with regard to same-sex marriage, which was forced upon me when my elder daughter got married to her girlfriend. I cannot change that, and I cannot now go around saying that I am opposed to it because I acquiesced to it.’
He added: ‘There we are.’
Came in for stinging criticism
Back in 2005, Mr Trimble came in for stinging criticism from the DUP, after it emerged that his senior adviser, Dr Stephen King, had married his partner in a same-sex civil ceremony in Canada.
In comments that were widely condemned, Ian Paisley Jnr said having such a man giving him advice ‘must surely cast grave doubts on his own political judgment’.
At the time, Mr Paisley denied that the comments were homophobic, saying: ‘I am not speaking from a position of hatred. I don’t hate gay people.
‘I am just stating my personal view that it is incongruous when you are opposed to gay marriage to have an adviser in a gay marriage.
‘It would be like the DUP taking advice from an IRA man on constitutional matters.’
Mr Paisley was formally censured by the Northern Ireland Policing board, of which he was a member, over the comments.
His father, Ian Paisley, was an outspoken critic of homosexuality and led the ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’ campaign in the 1970s.
Mr Trimble and SDLP leader John Hume were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in ending the Troubles through the Good Friday Agreement.