Ken Maginnis

Kenneth Wiggins Maginnis, Baron Maginnis of Drum Glass ( born January 21, 1938) is an Irish politician, former member of the Ulster Unionist Party, the member of the House of Lords. He was from 1983 to 2001 Member of the House of Commons.

Biography

Maginnis went to the Royal School Dungannon and Stranmillis College in Belfast. He worked for several years as a teacher and entered 1971 in the Ulster Defence Regiment of the British Army. In 1981 he left the army with the rank of Major. He was spokesman for homeland security and defense of the Ulster Unionists and was elected in the same year in the Regional Assembly of the Dungannon District, where he sat 12 years, until he lost his seat in 1993.

Member of Parliament

In 1982 he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly. In the British general election, 1983, he won a seat in the House of Commons. Two years later he resigned his seat in protest against the Anglo -Irish Agreement, together with all his Unionist colleagues. He continued his protest by refusing to pay his car tax, giving him a seven-day jail sentence in 1987 earned.

Good Friday Agreement

He was a strong supporter of the Good Friday Agreement. He lost his parliamentary seat in the British general election, 2001 and was raised in the same year as Baron Maginnis of Drumglasszum Life Peer.

Councilman

He was again councilor in Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council in 2001. However, he lost it again in the election of 2005.

House of Lords

In the House of Lords, he sat for the UUP.

Politics

Maginnis part of a socially liberal wing of the UUP together with Lady Hermon. He is one of only three members of Parliament of the Ulster Unionist Party was never a member of the Orange Order. He was a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry.

Ken Maginnis sparked a fierce controversy when he equated homosexuality in June 2012 in a BBC interview with bestiality. Lord Maginnis said he was against gay marriage, as these "unnatural " and that in his opinion, the Community should not introduce something that is unnatural. The party leader Mike Nesbitt emphasized that this is a personal opinion and not the position of the party. Also GLBT groups criticized him vehemently.

In June, the UUP whip was removed from office by party leader Mike Nesbitt for his homophobic statements of his office. Maginnis came out on August 28, 2012 from the party.