In the Long Gallery
Last week I chaired a debate organised by the NI Youth Forum and the British Youth Council in the Stormont Long Gallery. They had 6 politicians there - representing the four biggest parties, Alliance and the Greens. The thing that struck me most about the event wasn't anything the politicians said but some of the heart rending first hand accounts from the young people present about the fear and depression which drove them to contemplate suicide.
The debate was filmed by an independent company run by young people called Catch 21 Productions and a section has just been put up on Youtube. The section concentrates on those infamous comments from Ian Paisley Jr. about gays, which provoked a strong reaction from some of the young people in the audience.
I'm 
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Ian Paisley Jr. has a right to his opinion and to express it. We now seem to be in danger of finding ourselves in a totally intolerant society which does not allow anyone to express anything which anyone else might find offensive.- unless of course you want to defend traditional Christian values, in which case you are a fair target for everyone's wrath.
I believe that Ian is not a Christian, so please don't accuse me of claiming he is.
Just to respond to the above comment john, but as the young man who challenged Mr Paisley(not the guy who asked the question but one of the commentators) and I am not trying to attack Christian beliefs, and might I add that that all major religions do not beleive in homosexuality. However as an aethist i find religion to be irrelevant in modern politics and though i respect the holding of religious beliefs i do not respect intolerance of any kind especially in a modern western democracy. If i find that any religions values are repugnant and/or divisive i would challenge them all. Mr Brewer you have just spouted the immediate "daily mail type" counter to sexual freedom "this is an attack on christianity" however thats not what I intended to do, i refuse to stand for any intolerance whatever it maybe,and if it is a religion that spouts this intolerance then i will challenge it as easy as I would challenge any other organisation, though note that I do NOT attack the church in paticular.
Also there are secular people in this world who feel that the right to freedoms outweigh the right of religion. Would you deny freedom of conscience , simply for religion?