Study shows pro-unionist Protestants aged under 40 turned off by ultra-conservative attitudes on gay rights and abortion

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Younger pro-union Protestant voters in Northern Ireland are increasingly turned off unionist politicians due to their parties’ social conservatism on issues such as gay rights and abortion, according to a post-election survey.

While support among Protestants aged under 40 for staying in the UK remains solid at 82%, a majority of them no longer vote in elections for the Northern Ireland assembly or Westminster.

On liberalising the region’s strict anti-abortion laws, legalising gay marriage and supporting mixed religious marriages, the pro-unionist under-40s are far more liberal than the ultra-conservative Christian-influenced Democratic Unionist party, according to the University of Liverpool.

The research concludes there is a much broader divide between generations, with the most liberal sections of Northern Irish society not voting in local elections.

The university’s Institute of Irish Studies interviewed 1,155 voters across Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster/Stormont constituencies. The Economic and Social Research Council Northern Ireland general election survey was carried out directly after voting in June.

Ahead of the climax of Northern Ireland’s Pride week and Saturday’s mass LGBT rally in Belfast, the survey found a huge majority of younger pro-unionist Protestants in favour of same-sex marriage. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where gay couples cannot marry due to the continued vetoing of legislation by the DUP in the Stormont assembly.

Among the under-40 voters, 63% are in favour of same-sex marriage. For 18- to 40-year-old Protestants who don’t vote, the level of support is 72%.

On abortion, 52% of under-40s who do not vote are in favour of lifting the near total ban on terminations in Northern Irish hospitals.

Overall, 71% of 18- to 40-year-old pro-union Protestants would have no problem with a close relative marrying someone from the opposite religion.

One of the survey’s authors, Dr Peter Shirlow, said the findings showed a “massive inter-generational gap” between younger Protestant pro-unionists’ social attitudes and those of the traditionally conservative unionist parties in Northern Ireland.

Shirlow said the results should be a “wake-up call to the DUP” in terms of alienating younger unionists who are “far more liberal and tolerant on issues like gay rights and abortion”.

He said one of the major paradoxes of the survey was the disjunction between support to remain within the UK and indifference towards unionist political parties in the assembly.

For a lot of unionists, especially younger ones ... the DUP’s social conservatism drives them away from their politics John O'Doherty

Among under-40 Protestants who do not vote in elections, only 47% support the Northern Ireland assembly and the Stormont executive, yet support for staying in the UK remains well over 80% for the same group.

Shirlow said: “You have the paradox here of younger Protestants being prepared to go out in a referendum or so-called border poll to vote and firmly support the union. However, a large section of the 18 to 40 Protestant electorate appears at the very least to be indifferent to politics at Stormont, especially on the unionist side.

“If you combine this section of the electorate’s liberalism on social issues like abortion, gay marriage and mixed marriage we conclude that the type of social conservatism of the DUP is putting off these voters.”

John O’Doherty from the Rainbow Project, one of Northern Ireland’s main LGBT campaign groups, said the survey results showed the DUP was in danger of finding itself “on the wrong side of history”.



He added: “For a lot of unionists, especially younger ones who are on the centre or centre left of politics, they cannot find a political home because the DUP’s social conservatism drives them away from their politics.”



The Belfast Pride rally on Saturday will hear calls from the platform at Customs House Square from the Love Equality movement for a new assembly to legalise same-sex marriage.



Ahead of the march, LBGT campaigners will hold a Pride breakfast where the chief guest will be Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s first gay taoiseach.

As a gay man, Davy Rea feels has no choice among pro-unionist parties. Photograph: Image provided

‘I am a unionist, I believe in equality – who can I vote for?’

If there was a referendum tomorrow on Northern Ireland’s future within the UK, Davy Rea would get out to vote.



The 33-year-old, from Glengormley in north Belfast, would put his X firmly on the ballot paper in favour of staying with Britain rather than a united Ireland.

Yet over the last few years in a plethora of elections to the Stormont assembly, local councils and even Westminster, Rae has been at times reluctant to visit his local polling station.

Why? Because he is pro-union but also gay.

Rea, who works for a technology company, says he has no one to vote for among the mainstream unionist political parties – especially those who constantly torpedo attempts to bring marriage equality to Northern Ireland.

“I don’t feel I have any real choice when it comes to voting in elections,” he says. “I am a unionist, I am socially liberal, I believe in equality but who can I vote for?

“By opposing equality the DUP are discarding and ignoring people like myself who want to remain in the UK, inside a multicultural, tolerant society. My sister is 17 and will soon be of voting age. She asks me all the time who can she vote for if she is pro-union but believes in treating people equally. What do I tell her?”

In a direct appeal to the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, Rea added: “I would ask her, ‘What if one of your loved ones turned out to be gay? How would you want them to be treated in society?’ I would hope that maybe she would change the DUP’s policy and stop shooting down each attempt to bring in marriage equality. Allow for a free vote and let us all move on.”