John Bishop calls for Northern Ireland to legalise gay marriage

John Bishop gave a powerful, moving speech about his gay son and called for Northern Ireland to legalise gay marriage at the NatWest British LGBT Awards.

The Scouse comedian was awarded the Ally of the Year award at the ceremony on Friday (May 11)  and attended the London event wife his wife Melanie and three sons Joe, Luke and Daniel.

And during his speech, the funnyman was met with laughter and applause after he spoke about legalising gay marriage in Northern Ireland.

He said: “I was so pleased to be nominated. I brought my family, my wife and my three sons who I love and I am massively proud of.

“Like all parents we have problems with them. One of my sons has a tattoo on his ankle that was meant to be Africa but looks like Australia, one of my sons mumbles and one of my sons in a gay man.

“I’ll be honest, there’s been loads of nights when me and my wife have sat up and worried and worried and worried. What are we going to do if he doesn’t stop mumbling?

Family ❤️ pic.twitter.com/UJXByqIbB8

— John Bishop (@JohnBishop100) May 12, 2018

“I was in Northern Ireland recently. In Northern Ireland it is still illegal to have a same-sex marriage.

“I went to have a chat with some people from the Rainbow Trust who put together the biggest gay pride in the whole of Ireland and it was a real lesson to me.

“I spoke to them about when the first pride march happened. It is people like this who really paved the way. Now the gay pride in Belfast has 60,000 people turn up.

“The first time they did it just 50 brave souls got together and when they walked down the road they were faced with people stood there with placards.

“They had placards shouting at these people, ‘You’re going to hell’, ‘Being gay is a sin’, ‘You’re an abomination’.

“Back then there was more protests than marches. Now they dwarf the protestors.”