09/03/2026
Today we remember Mark Ashton, raised in Portrush, a comrade, a firebrand of hope who left us at just 26 years old. Twenty-six. A life tragically cut short by Aids.
And yet what he set in motion continues to echo across decades...
In 1984, at the height of the miners’ strike, when fear and hostility toward LGBTQ+ people were at a boiling point, Mark chose courage. He co-founded Le****ns and G**s Support the Miners and helped raise over £20,000 for families whose communities were under siege. But it wasn’t just money, it was love in action. It was solidarity made real. It was saying: your struggle is our struggle.
Those bonds changed this country. In 1985, the National Union of Mineworkers backed LGBTQ+ rights at the Labour Party conference in a moment that helped shift the political ground beneath our feet.
Mark did not live to see the repeal of Section 28. He did not see equal marriage become law. He did not see all people and young people able to grow up with a little less fear. But every one of those milestones carries something of him within it. His courage. His defiance. His belief that we are strongest when we stand together.
Causeway Pride now stands in the town where he grew up. To us its personal. It is more than a celebration, it is a protest, it is a living tribute. It is our promise that the spirit of solidarity he embodied still breathes here. That when people are targeted, isolated, or struggling, we will not look away. We will show up.
Mark’s life reminds us that even in the darkest political moments, small groups of committed people can create ripples that become waves. He may not have lived to see the victories that followed, but we are living in part because of them.
We are continuing the work to create a permanent memorial in his honour something lasting, something worthy of the legacy he left behind. We hope to be able to make an announcement very soon.
Mark Ashton’s life was heartbreakingly short but his impact is immeasurable.
And his solidarity still calls us forward.
