The late Ian Paisley famously waged a campaign in the 1970s to “save Ulster from sodomy”, a homophobia that seemed etched in the DNA of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP). Iris Robinson, an MP and wife of the party’s then leader and first minister, Peter Robinson, in 2008 called homosexuality a sin and an abomination. On Friday, the party’s new leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, attempted to draw a line under that history when he apologised to Northern Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community for the hurt caused by party members’ remarks. “I think it is right to apologise when we have said things that have been hurtful to others. There are differences in our society, differences and deeply held views on social issues, and what I want to see in Northern Ireland is a discourse that is respectful of difference,” he told BBC Radio Ulster. “Where we have said things that have hurt others then it is right that we say sorry for that. Sorry needn’t be the hardest word.” Donaldson, 58, the MP for Lagan Valley who was ratified as party leader earlier this week, spoke a day after its deputy leader, Paula Bradley, made a forceful denunciation of the party’s record on gay rights. “I am not going to defend some of the things that have been said over the years because they have been absolutely atrocious, they have been shocking,” she said during a panel discussion at PinkNews’ Virtual Belfast Reception. Such comments had inflicted hurt and fed hatred, said Bradley, a Stormont assembly member. “I think that the vast majority of people who have made those comments are no longer there and the ones that are there have said they have learned their lessons, that their language at times has not been right.” Bradley and Donaldson did not mention Paisley, the party’s founder, who died in 2014. His son, Ian Paisley Junior, is a DUP MP. Free Presbyterians and other conservative Christians form a diminished but still powerful group within the party. Donaldson framed his comments as an appeal for respect and tolerance, including for religious beliefs. “I have seen things said about people from faith communities that have been hurtful and should not have been said,” he said. The DUP’s stance on gay rights – it opposed legalisation on same-sex marriage in 2019 – had left it politically isolated and mocked. The Outburst Queer arts festival in Belfast made headlines in 2019 with a new work, Abomination: A DUP Opera.