A UUP candidate is hoping to be East Belfast’s first openly lesbian MLA.
Lauren Kerr has been involved in politics for 15 years and began working in the party’s press office during the 2011 election.
She didn’t come out until her mid-20s, with much of her own experiences underpinning her political outlook.
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She told Belfast Live: “If I reflect on the experience I had as a teenager and a young person, I want to do everything I can to make sure that other young gay people don’t have that same experience.”
Lauren believes that the LGBT community in Northern Ireland faces several issues that need to change urgently.
She said: “I think the first of those is certainly trans healthcare. I think that the system that currently exists is unworkable, and it's not serving people, and I think it's making people's lives a lot harder.
“Something I'm very passionate about is sex and relationships education, and the fact that we don't have universal sex and relationships education in Northern Ireland.”
The 30-year-old recalled that growing up, she often wondered why she wasn’t having the same experiences as her other female friends.
If sex and relationships education were available in schools, she said “we wouldn't have generations of kids who, for their whole experience of school, didn't see themselves, didn't exist… [It’s important for LGBT+ kids] to know that they exist in the minds of their peers, and that they are able to be taught in the classroom what a healthy relationship is.”
To Lauren, the upcoming election is “an opportunity with a new Assembly this year… to see a more diverse set of voices in there who can reflect exactly the new Northern Ireland.”
She said: "The thing that shapes my experience of life most and shapes how other people see me is that I’m a woman. And I think that as a woman in an Assembly… it’s important to go in there and advocate for yourself and for other women.
"You know, whether that’s in reproductive rights, in changes to justice, in education and employment opportunities.”
Lauren says she strongly believes in the importance of building good relationships with others in government.
“I’m a pragmatist, and I think in Northern Ireland, we don't have a lot of that in politics… just because…a good idea comes from another party or another politician, doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.”
She continued: “I think in Northern Ireland, we just need more people in the Assembly who are willing to work together to make Northern Ireland better.”
In many ways, Lauren is a typical millennial. She’s open on her social media platforms and even did stand-up comedy for a few years. She said she likes to be candid online so that “then people know what they’re getting, you know, and they can make a decision about whether to vote for me or not.”
According to Lauren: “We’ve had a dearth of openly queer people in politics here.
“[I’m] trying to be the person that if I'd seen me whenever I was 14, you know, might have made me feel a bit less weird. So, yeah, if it achieves anything, if it achieves that then, you know, regardless of what happens after the 5th of May, then this will have been worth it."
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