Who Are The DUP? Meet The Conservative Party's New BFFs

In the wonderful world of democracy, every vote matters. That is, unless the runner up of the popular vote gets elected into office (hey Donald, looking at you boo), or you're a party from Northern Ireland that nobody voted for that can chat up the Prime Minister into becoming chums. It's also important to note that The Unedit's purpose isn't to provide political commentary - there are a thousand different media outlets for that - but when we do discuss it, it's only because it's relevant to our readership.

Theresa May and the Conservatives (which sounds like a - albeit pretty crap - Motown act from the '60s) fell short of a majority in the House of Commons and have made plans to enter into a confidence and supply deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). So in a nutshell, who are the DUP and what policies of their's do The Unedit want to take a look at?

Theresa May facepalming whilst stood between current first minister Arlene Foster and former deputy first minister the late Martin McGuinness last year. Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

The DUP, much like Northern Ireland as a country, are pretty strict when it comes to Catholicism. As a result of this, the party's managed to cause its fair share of controversy for some of it's outlooks, and are widely considered by many as religious extremists with links to terror organisations. (Ironic really, considering Theresa May spent half of her breath during the General Election campaign telling the world her opposition was a terrorist sympathiser, but there we go.) Here are a few of their stances/things that they've said which are totally absurd/terrifying when considered in potential positions of power:

LGBT RIGHTS & GAY MARRIAGE

Doesn't "Save Ulster from Sodomy" just make you want to put a cross in the little box next to DUP on your ballot card? Yes, that's a real campaign slogan that they once used. No, we're not joking.

The party's founder's son, Ian Paisley Jr., previously graced everyone with his opinion on homosexuality, calling it "immoral, offensive and obnoxious" and spoke of how gays and lesbians "repulsed" him. (I pray that Pride organisers make sure the parade route goes right past his damn front door.)

Back in 2015 the DUP's former health minister Jim Wells told a hustings that "the gay lobby is insatiable, they don't know when enough is enough." This fine specimen of a man also said that children who are raised by a homosexual couple were more likely to be neglected or abused. He later apologised, but let's face it: the guy's a douche.

Only last year, another greatly educated DUP politician Trevor Clarke said that he thought the only people that could contract HIV or AIDS were gays(?!?!?!?!?!?!). Since then, he's been schooled and said that he "did not understand the stigma attached to it", leading him to campaign for AIDS awareness and prevention.

There have also been several attempts to pass legislation regarding same-sex marriage, and each attempt has been vetoed by the DUP. They like to believe in the "traditional" concept of marriage, and strongly oppose same-sex couples tying the knot. Party leader Arlene Foster said: "when it becomes a matter for me is when people try to redefine marriage." Oh, bore off.

ABORTION

To add to the fun, this bundle of joy political party are anti-abortion. Quelle surprise! The DUP is the biggest pro-forced pregnancy party in the UK with Foster committed to prevent the availability of abortions in Northern Ireland. That's not dangerous for the welfare of girls and women with unwanted pregnancies at all! *cue eye roll*

SEXISM

The cherry on top is the support that one female politician has for another, that being Arlene Foster, once again, saying dumb shit. Talking about Michelle O'Neil, who is Sinn Fein's leader in Northern Ireland, Foster described her as "blonde" and went on to tell the Sunday Independent: "I don't want to be sexist because I can't... Michelle is very attractive. She presents herself very well and she is - you know - her appearance is always very 'the same'. You never see her without her make up. You never see her without her hair [looking] perfect." Please do carry on belittling women by focusing more on what they look like than their career and/or successes. Also a top tip: starting a sentence with "I don't want to be sexist because I can't..." is basically the sexist equivalent of "I'm not a racist but...".

They have plenty of other interesting/stupid things to say about climate change, Brexit, evolution and other topics, but our focus is merely on what sort of policies this party could attempt, or even succeed, to pass in the House of Commons that could alienate, discriminate against and potentially endanger women and the LGBTQA+ community.