Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association
From LGBT Archive
The Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) is an organisation campaigning for the rights of LGBT people in Northern Ireland.
NIGRA was formed in 1975, and initially concentrated on campaigning for gay male sex to be decriminalised, as had been done in England and Wales by the Sexual Offences Act 1967. This provoked Rev Ian Paisley MP, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Free Presbyterian Church, to form a group called "Save Ulster from Sodomy" to campaign for the law to be retained. In the end the European Court of Human Rights forced the UK government to pass the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982, which decriminalised sex between men over 18.
P A Mag Lochlainn was president of NIGRA for many years.
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External links
http://www.nigra.org.uk official website
