John Blair (Northern Ireland politician)

John Kenneth Blair (born 10 February 1966) is an Alliance Party politician, who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Antrim since 2018. He is the first openly gay member of the Assembly.[2][3]

John Blair
MLA
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for South Antrim
Assumed office
27 June 2018
Preceded byDavid Ford
Personal details
Born (1966-02-10) 10 February 1966
NationalityNorthern Irish
Political partyAlliance
Other political
affiliations		Newtownabbey Ratepayers' Association (1997–2005)[1]
OccupationPolitician

Political career

Blair was elected to Newtownabbey Borough Council in 2011 representing Glengormley Urban, and to the new Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council in 2014.[1][4] In 2018, he was co-opted to fill David Ford's Assembly seat in South Antrim.[5] Blair has been appointed to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly and the Northern Ireland Policing Board.[6][7]

Personal life

Blair is the first openly gay MLA.[8][9][10]

See also

References
  1. "Newtownabbey Council Elections 1993–2011". ark.ac.uk.
  2. "Northern Ireland set to have its first openly gay MLA". The Irish Times.
  3. "John Kenneth BLAIR - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk.
  4. "Glengormley braced for loyalist trouble". 7 December 2012.
  5. "Meet Northern Ireland's first openly gay MLA – David Ford Alliance replacement John Blair". The Belfast Telegraph.
  6. "The Northern Ireland Assembly". Government of the United Kingdom.
  7. "British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly | Northern Ireland Members and Associates". britishirish.org.
  8. McCormack, Jayne (27 June 2018). "First openly gay MLA takes Stormont seat". BBC.
  9. "Foster's attendance at LGBT event welcomed as 'a small but significant step towards equality'". newsletter.co.uk.
  10. "Policing board member sacked over gay jibes". The Irish Times.
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