Belfast's next Lord Mayor will be vocal LGBTQ activist and opponent of 'hate speech' Micky Murray

The Twitter biography of Micky Murray describes him as an "LGBTQ activist" whose pronouns are "he/him", and includes the hashtag 'ban conversion therapy' (one of the key demands of the UK trans movement).

Councillor Murray was co-opted onto the council in 2022 to replace a colleague who won an MLA seat, then defended his seat in the following year’s election, narrowly winning one of the five seats in the Balmoral district on the seventh round of counting.

He hailed his pending adoption of the chain of office today, saying: "This is a significant moment for the LGBTQ+ community, as I step into a role which has never represented us before."

Transgenderism features very prominently on his Twitter account, along with his support for “non-binary” people and opposition to what he calls hate speech.

Last September he tweeted out images from Trans Pride NI, a trans gathering in the city centre, showing a stage bedecked with signs reading "trans kids are beautiful" and "transcend gender", and said in an accompanying message: "Trans people are under attack more and more from the right wing media and trans exclusionary groups.

"When trans rights are under attack, stand up fight back!"

The previous month he had spoken about holding a three-hour meeting with police to criticise them for the decision to stop uniformed officers marching in Pride parades, their lack of action against street preachers using anti-gay language, and "confidence in policing among the LGBTQIA+ community" more generally.

He said he had previously turned up routinely on Saturdays to watch evangelists at Belfast's Cornmarket and "monitor their hate speech", and that "hate speech is NOT free speech".

(There are currently moves afoot to curtail amplified street preaching in the city centre: see here.)

Last January councillor Murray responded to an online clip showing a 17-year-old girl in the USA complaining tearfully about having encountered a "naked male in the women's locker room" at her gym, and how it had made her "terrified".

She said that when she complained, she was told the gym's transgender policy was that the man could "shower wherever he pleased".

Councillor Murray wrote in response: "The transphobic bathroom/changing room argument being used against trans people is the same argument they used against LGB people.

"This woman [the 'naked male' described by the 17-year-old] was getting changed & went home… that’s all she’s guilty of. Trans people are far more likely to be the victims of crime…

"People wanted LGB people banned from changing rooms and public bathrooms, this is no different to how trans people are being treated now."

He will take up his role as Lord Mayor in June, replacing Sinn Fein’s Ryan Murphy.

The mayorship is decided based on the d’Hondt system, basically meaning that the parties with the most number of councillors rotate the role amongst one another.