Interesting development and another bit of evidence that the tide is turning in favour of marriage equality as Alliance MLA for Lagan Valley, Trevor Lunn announced at an Amnesty event on the issue that he would vote in favour of same sex marriage when it next comes up in the Assembly. Lunn abstained on the issue when it was before MLAs in April 2015.
Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn publicly supports Equal Marriage at @FeileBelfast and @AmnestyNI event pic.twitter.com/oQWZE4rypY
— NUS-USI (@NUS_USI) August 3, 2015
In July 2015 a poll by IPSOS/Mori found that 79% of Alliance party voters supported same sex marriage and there has been a growing number of party activists unhappy at the level of criticism being directed towards the party at the fact that some of their MLAs are voting against party policy.
Either way with the departure of Judith Cochrane next year, it will likely mean that from the next election there will be no Alliance MLAs who oppose marriage equality.
David McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
