Cross Posting: Not a take over, we just want equality in deed and thought

Cross posting from LGBT Lib Dems NI

There is an article in today's Irish Independent on Sunday that you just wonder how on earth did it get published. It is almost as if the opinion writer Eamon Delaney was preparing a piece just in case David Norris instead of Michael D. Higgins had been elected President.

The first paragraph tells you enough that this isn't going to be an LGBT friendly piece:

"As the cliche goes, some of my best friends are gay. I used to live in a very gay area, the West Village in New York. Indeed, enjoying their nightlife and cultural atmosphere, I was even accused of 'trading' off the fun, with my copycat denim jacket and tartan shirt, while not actually joining them."

Eamon Delaney

Wow! Wearing denim jackets and denim shirts marks you out as gay in the USA. Has anyone told the rodeo stars or is Brokeback Mountain the norm rather than the exception? Talk about cliche, it isn't the first one that is offensive so much as the thought that the writer things he can become gay!

He carries on:

"I've recently begun to get impatient with the endless trumpeting of gay 'identity', and the growing appetite for more and more rights and privileges."

The rights we have been looking for are equal rights, the privileges are merely ones that heterosexual people take for granted. We'd love to expand the right of straight men like Eamon to buy cocktails if they want, but they already can. Or to go dancing with people of the same gender, but this is how the Jewish and Muslim community already dance at weddings.

Homosexuality was only decriminalised in the Republic in 1993 and in Northern Ireland in 1982. Anti-discrimination legislation only came into being in 2004 in the Republic, 2003 in the UK. Civil Partnerships only became legal earlier this year in the Republic but since 2004 in Northern Ireland.

Mr Delaney thinks that the LGBT community, actually his word is 'gays', "want to increasingly change mainstream culture to suit them". Now replace his word gay with blacks, or jews, or any other minority in the following paragraph and see how it reads:

"I'm not being reactionary and I'm all for gay rights and an end to prejudice and discrimination, and always have, but at this stage it seems as if the tables have turned and a minority community -- the gays -- want to increasingly change mainstream culture to suit them."

See the thing is while people, see a minority as not being part of the mainstream therein lies the problem. The fact that he sees that the LGBT community are not currently considered 'mainstream' means that there is still work to be done for equality to be a natural state. The recent reports into homophobic bullying, the recent comments from people in politics both north and south showing a them and us attitude to LGBT rights shows that things are not normal and the LGBT community is not see as those by many. The fact indeed that in his article Delaney uses the word 'gay' 25 times but LGBT a total of once and that in a derogatory manner as follows:

"And there are other things about the growing gay rights movement which make outsiders impatient and uneasy. Like, when did the gays and lesbian community become the 'LGBT', an acronym that also includes Bisexual and Transgender?

"Sorry, but this is broadening the boundaries in a way that makes many of us understandably sceptical.

"Bisexual? Isn't that reminiscent of the loose Seventies sexual experimentation? How many bisexuals are there? And will the plain people of Ireland be happy with legalising rights for, and spending money on, all of this?"

Actually no! What it shows by us including the bi-sexuals and transgender shows that we know there is a struggle to be recognised as being in a sexual minority. Those who are bi-sexual face all manner of issues, especially when changing the gender of their current partner, indeed when re-entering a mixed sex relationship it was something at the time I referred to as going back in. While we also recognise that not all transgendered individuals are Lesbian, Gay or Bi, we also realise that we don't want to leave them behind. They are an even small minority that the LGBs of this world, but if the LGB community lend their voice to the Ts so that their issues are taken seriously they will be more quickly.

There are many debates within the community about why the Ts are included and how some of the LGBs don't know enough about the issues that Ts face. But there are those who recognise that with the platform of one set the needs of the other can also be heard.

What I am sceptical about is just how LGBT friendly Mr Delaney really is. He clearly doesn't seem to have moved on from the time he enjoyed their company in 'the village' in New York all those years ago. He hasn't kept up with the issues faced by the LGBT community in the island of Ireland, something that is clear from the language and lack of understanding he shows through what he writes.

Forgive the cliche, but I think he once met someone who was gay and was quite a good laugh and a very supportive individual. But he has never talked to that one gay acquaintance, nor any other gay acquaintance in depth about the issues they face in their family, their workplace, the church, out on the streets of Dublin, Belfast or Ballywhatever in rural Ireland.

Read also 
Consider the Tea Cosy offers this thoughtful response
This defense of Delaney's supposedly non-existent bisexual and transgender communities
This answering merely the nine questions that Delaney asked
Autostraddle merely calls the article stupid
This open letter from the University Times to the editor of the Sunday Independent

Bangor, Bowls and Bells

Yesterday my good friend Michael came out to Bangor for some sea air. The two of us being us of course a trip for him to Bangor did not just involve the normal activities of Bangor. There was a stop of at the Frederick Schomberg, the 1st Duke of Schomberg's camp before he set off to the Boyne where he died in battle in 1690. There was a visit to the old Walled Garden of Bangor Castle, now shortlisted for Britain in Bloom 2011 and open to the public and a walk around town, checking out some architectural history in my Gazeeter of the town, as well as spotting a graphic design error that got both our attention.

The evening rounded off with us actually sharing a little with the other a little of our favourite passtimes. First I took Michael along to see Sylvia Lady Hermon MP delivering the ceremonial first bowl of the Bangor Tournament. After a 10 year absence, while I was over in Scotland, I'll be making my return to the competition on Monday at 9:30am in the Singles. But here is a video I took of Lady Hermon, speaking (sorry very poor sound) and then delivering the ceremonial bowl.



After a few brief pointers about what was going on to Michael as we left the Greens we heard the bells at Bangor Parish start up. So Michael introduced me to his campanology passion and led us up the bell tower. I eventually did get to pull a few strokes on the bell and I can say it is a lot harder than it looks.

The Bowling Greens of Ireland: Part 1 Bessbrook

As some of you know I'm back playing bowls in Ireland so I'm going to start an occassional sedries of the venues that I have been playing at.

First up is Bessbrook one of the longest treks for us within the Northern Irish Bowling Assoccation being all the way down near Newry. However as you can see from the pictures the green is set out in the green surrounded by the old mill cottages on three sides. There are also views of Slieve Gullion and Carnlough Mountain from the green. However, the day we were there as you can see rain not only threatened but came down so hard that for 5 minutes in the middle of the match we all sheltered in the club house.


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