Northern Ireland politician Lord John Kilclooney has been widely criticised after he suggested gay people should not talk about their sexuality.

The British peer, who previously served as a member of the British parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and European parliament, was made a lifetime peer in 2001. His lifetime appointment to the House of Lords by Queen Elizabeth II transformed him from John Taylor to Baron Kilcooney.

In a post to social media on New Year’s Eve Lord Kilcooney implored LGBTIQA+ people to stop talking about their sexuality.

“If you are gay – and it appears that many are – you do not need to mention it every time!” he posted to social media X, formerly known as Twitter.

There’s no explanation to what led to the politician sharing his thoughts, but he’s received a barrage of criticism for his comment.

Hundreds of people ignored his request and sent him messages to let him know they were in fact completely gay.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is gay, asked “What is it to you?”, while author Ryan Love took the opportunity to promote his book Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out which is an intergenerational coming out story.

Many people pointed out that the post complaining that gay people mention their sexuality in public actually proves that homophobia still exists in society, and Lord Kilclooney had just shown why people need to be forthright about their sexuality.

The politician has previously been accused of making racist posts to social media. He previously referred to Ireland’s prime minster Leo Varadkar as “the Indian”, and on another occasion also referred to US Vice President Kamala Harris as “the Indian”.

Lord Kilclooney denied either post was racist noting that the Irish PM did have Indian ancestry, while he said he had used the phrase to describe Vice President Harris because he could not recall her name.

OUTinPerth has contacted Lord Kilclooney for comment.