Archives for April 2015

Ireland approves same-sex adoption

06/04/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

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In: Carousel, GLBT News
On: April 5, 2015

By John Mack Freeman
The Seanad Eireann (Ireland’s upper legislative body) approved the Children and Family Relationship Bill this week by a margin of 20-2. The bill had been the subject of day’s of discussion and over 120 amendments. This bill allows for adoption of children by same-sex couples. Via PinkNews:

The bill – which passed the lower house earlier last month – follows up on a promise to extend adoption rights to same-sex partners and co-habiting couples, ahead of the country’s referendum on same-sex marriage on May 22.
It now awaits the signature of Irish President Michael D Higgins, who will sign the bill into law as Head of State.
The bill received a standing ovation when it passed – and given the controversy surrounding the country’s same-sex marriage referendum, cleared the Seanad remarkably without incident.

‘Homophobic bullying is stubbornly pervasive in society,” says Welsh equality charity

04/04/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Reprinted from Wales Online: 16:18, 2 April 2015 By Liz Day
Stonewall Cymru is calling on people to contact their parliamentary candidates for support in challenging homophobic bullying and hate crime
Rainbow flag at RCT council offices in Clydach ValeRainbow flag at RCT council offices in Clydach Vale
One in three gay pupils in Wales have changed their plans for further education due to homophobic bullying, according to data from an equality charity.
In the run-up to the General Election, Stonewall Cymru is calling on its supporters to contact their local parliamentary candidates for support in challenging homophobic bullying and hate crime.
Work to be done
Charity director Andrew White said: “The progress made during recent parliaments is something to celebrate, but we’re acutely aware that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people still face bullying, discrimination and prejudice.”
According to the charity’s most recent research in Wales, 43% of primary school teachers said that their pupils had experienced homophobic bullying or name-calling.
Related: Wales’ schools failing to monitor homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying finds study
In secondary schools, this figure was even higher, with 89% of staff reporting that their pupils had experienced harassment for being gay, lesbian or bisexual.
‘Profoundly damaging’
Across the UK, the charity believes that 75,000 young people are being bullied for their sexual orientation, with more than half of LGBT pupils experiencing some form of bullying. According to the charity, the use of homophobic language in Welsh schools is “endemic.”
In Welsh primary schools, 61% of teachers reported hearing pupils use the expression “you’re so gay”, rising to 93% in secondary schools.
Related: General Election 2015: Head of Christian Party UK plans to stand as Parliamentary Prospective Candidate in Cardiff North
Stonewall says that bullying has a “profoundly damaging” impact on young people’s school experience, with three in five saying it impacts directly on their work.
With just over a month until the election, the charity has launched an equality manifesto, calling for developments such as measures to combat hate crime.
‘Bullying is stubbornly pervasive in society’

BullyingBullying
Mr White said: “Hate crime continues to be a miserable and under reported reality across Wales. Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying is stubbornly pervasive in society.”
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, police in Wales recorded 270 incidents of hate crime against people on the grounds of sexual orientation in 2013-14. Welsh forces also recorded 47 hate crimes against transgender individuals over the same time period.
But the charity believes these figures are the “tip of the iceberg”, as many victims never report such crimes.
‘Equality must sit at the heart of the political agenda’
Chief executive Ruth Hunt said: “A lot has been achieved during this parliament, but the biggest risk now is that huge achievements in legal equality may result in complacency.
“Legal equality is not enough by itself, we need to encourage our candidates to help change hearts and minds in their communities in order to achieve social equality.”
Related: Revealed: The best places to work in Wales if you are gay
She added: “Equality must sit at the heart of the political agenda and we will call out any instances of homophobia, biphobia or transphobia that we see from any political party or candidate.
“Political parties should be thinking long and hard about how they can help us fight for a world where every LGBT person can be themselves, and be safe, every day.”

'Homophobic bullying is stubbornly pervasive in society,” says Welsh equality charity

04/04/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard says he would ‘love it’ if a gay footballer came out

04/04/2015 By ACOMSDave 1 Comment

Editorial: LGBT people are part of life; there is no one sector in which they don’t exist. However, there are sectors of life in which they don’t feel comfortable on being ‘out’, or indeed welcomed. Football is one sport, but there are others. Strides have been made to make it more welcoming, with various campaigns led by individual clubs and also by the football association, but to date there is not ‘gay and out’ footballer playing in the Premier league. We do have some LGBT teams in lower divisions of course.

The Manchester City midfielder also told how he is enjoying life up north but admitted he will always consider himself a “Chelsea boy”

Frank Lampard runs with the ball — Hopeful: Lampard wants a gay player to come out

Frank Lampard says he hopes a gay footballer will come out soon and be “treated with respect” in the near future.
The Manchester City midfielder also told how he is enjoying life up north but will always consider himself a “Chelsea boy” because of his successful time at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard, 36, was asked about gay footballers on Channel 4’s Chatty Man when openly gay host Alan Carr insisted some Premier League footballers must be gay statistically.
Lampard replied: “We have had a couple come out afterwards. I think it is a fact they will be out there, they are in all lives and times, but we are at fault as a sport. It is that old syndrome where it is a man’s game and you can’t talk about that.
“I have to say the game is changing a lot, there are a lot of campaigns and I feel it in the dressing rooms. I would love it if someone came out and everyone treated it with respect.
“This silly thing that we are macho and we play football is very old hat.”

Frank Lampard holds up the Champions League trophy — Chelsea boy: Lampard was hugely successful at Stamford Bridge

Appearing on the show to promote his Frankie’s Magic Football children’s books,Lampard also spoke about his time at Chelsea.
He said the fans and staff at Manchester City had embraced him, but he added: “I had 13 years at Chelsea and I will always be a Chelsea boy because I played there and have so many memories.
“They decided I was moving on and at 35 you are not going to fight that. If they want you to move on you move on. Then Manchester City came in for me. it was too good to turn down.
“At 36 not many people get asked to play for the champions of England at the time for five months.
“I have got such a great relationship with the Chelsea fans. It hasn’t broken it.
“I still have my main house in Chelsea and I go back to London a lot, I hope I won’t ever lose that, I don’t think I will.”

Jose Mourinho on the touch line — Brilliant: Lampard hailed Mourinho

Asked about Jose Mourinho as a manager, he added: “He is brilliant. If you wanted to bottle a manager and get all the good bits in it, he has got them.
“I say that because he helped me in my career a huge amount. When he came I didn’t have that self confidence, I was 25, and he brought that out of me. And he does that with all the players he works with.
“He is very good at gauging a player and he knows if you need a b******ing he will give it to you individually or as a team on a day but if you need a little bit of love and niceness he does that as well.”

Frank admitted that he enjoyed celebrating his success with Chelsea, though his fiancee, TV presenter Christine Bleakley, did keep him in line.
He said: “Winning the champions league was the greatest acheivement. We celebrated on the pitch for an hour, we celebrated through the night and the next two or three days.
“And then I took it too far because about three or four days later I was on the sofa at home and I was struggling a little bit and Christine said ‘Frank, you need to stop celebrating this now. You need to get on with life!’.”

Going Stateside: Lampard will move to New York at the end of the Premier League season

Frank also said his recent trip to New York had been successful and he thought he and Christine had found an apartment to live in after spending two days searching for the right home.
Of the New York City fans, he said: “They did chant a lot, they are very game and very keen. They have started a new club and you know what Americans are like, they are very positive and behind their team.
“The game we watched was a funny game and they didn’t play particularly well but the fans were all behind them. If there was a shot from anywhere they get really excited.”
Frank also hinted he could go into TV work or management after he retires. He said: “I’m in the back end of my career, whether I stay in football, I don’t really know.
“I will maybe do my coaching badges, that is two years worth of work to maybe be a manager.
“But I am not sure if I will go down that route or certain other routes, a bit of TV maybe, everyone is lining up to do it, that punditry thing. It looks easy but it is not that easy.”

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard says he would 'love it' if a gay footballer came out

04/04/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

Editorial: LGBT people are part of life; there is no one sector in which they don’t exist. However, there are sectors of life in which they don’t feel comfortable on being ‘out’, or indeed welcomed. Football is one sport, but there are others. Strides have been made to make it more welcoming, with various campaigns led by individual clubs and also by the football association, but to date there is not ‘gay and out’ footballer playing in the Premier league. We do have some LGBT teams in lower divisions of course.

The Manchester City midfielder also told how he is enjoying life up north but admitted he will always consider himself a “Chelsea boy”

Meet the Boys of HOPE

04/04/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

GT Community

Meet the boys of HOPE

UK’s first gay rugby union team spread the love

Meet the Kings Cross Steelers. They are the UK’s first gay rugby union team.

With a big decline in voters since changes were made to the electoral register, the team have come together to encourage you all to register your vote and make our voice a the LGBT community count.
With their campaign HOPE not hate – the group are hoping they can convince you to make the effort to register, vote and make your voice count.
The deadline to register your vote for this year is 20 April.
HOPE not hate is the UK’s leading anti-racism and anti-extremism campaign and has been promoting the power of voting since the beginning of March.

More information on the team and their work can be found here.
Reprinted from Gay Times: Words William J Connolly, @wjconnolly

Padraig Reidy: The “gay cake” case bedevils Northern Ireland

04/04/2015 By David McFarlane Leave a Comment

Editorial: We have already reported that this case is currently in court and awaiting judgement; however the reason why I have picked this article up is because members of the Free Presbyterian Church decided to protest outside Windsor Park before the Finland in a European Championship qualifier which was to be played for the first time on a Sunday.

As I have stated before, I believe that everyone has a right to hold a ‘peaceful’ protest, however what is disheartening is when you also read that Conservative faith leaders have made religious liberty a rallying cry as gay marriage has spread throughout the states.

It would appear that religious freedom must be granted no matter whose freedom gets trampled in the meantime.

Please let us know your thoughts?

Religious right wants to constrict your freedom

By Padraig Reidy / 2 April, 2015
QueerSpace Belfast / Facebook

Last Sunday, as Northern Ireland’s footballers prepared to play Finland in a European Championship qualifier, protesters gathered outside Windsor Park, the team’s Belfast home.
The assembled were members of the Free Presbyterian Church. They were angered by the fact that Northern Ireland were playing on a Sunday – the Sabbath – for the first time ever.
Reverend Raymond Robinson told the Press Association: “Our opposition is to the breaking of observance of the Lord’s day.
“We believe in the Sabbath being kept holy. It seems more and more that the football agenda is being driven by the television companies and not what God says, or what public opinion is.”
Commentator Newton Emerson was, like many, blase about the protest, tweeting “I think these people are harmless enough now to just count towards our wonderful diversity.”
Be that as it may, Christian fundamentalism still plays a huge role in public life in Northern Ireland. While the old demands for Biblical propriety may seem archaic, a new struggle has emerged over what many religious people in the country see as threats to their religious freedom and way of life. And a cake has become the latest flashpoint.
Asher’s bakery is a business run by a family known for its Christian beliefs. It is named after one of the Biblical Twelve Tribes of Israel. Last summer, the bakery was asked to provide a cake by Gareth Lee, a volunteer for LGBT group QueerSpace.
Lee had requested a cake decorated with a picture of Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie and the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.
The bakery initially accepted the order, before then informing Lee that it could not fulfil the deal. The case went to Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission, and, between the jigs and reels, is now in the hands of district judge Isobel Brownie, who will rule on Monday whether the Christian bakers engaged in unlawful discrimination by not delivering the pro-same sex marriage cake.
Meanwhile, the “gay cake” case has raised the spectre of a “conscience clause” in equality legislation in Northern Ireland.
The whole situation is, quite frankly, pitiful. One can preach it, validly, both ways: fundamentalist bigots out of touch with the modern world, and inflicting their bigotry on others, or God-fearing, humble folk sticking by their beliefs in the face of an onslaught they didn’t invite.
I can’t help feel sympathetic towards the McArthurs, the family who own the bakery. Karen McArthur told the court that she had initially accepted the order to avoid embarrassment. Colin McArthur said “On that day I didn’t make a clinical decision. I was examining my heart. I was wrestling it over in my heart and in my mind.” He was, apparently, “deeply troubled”. “We discussed how we could stand before God and bake a cake like this promoting a case like this…”
On the other hand, Gareth Lee said he was left feeling like a lesser person after he was told his order would not be fulfilled.
This shouldn’t be down to who was more upset or offended, but then, on what criteria can we judge it? I don’t think it’s necessarily true to say that Lee is entitled to have any message he wants put on any cake by any person. The prosecution, correctly, pointed out that the message was rejected because of the word “gay”. The defence lawyers suggested that a ruling against the McArthurs could lead to a situation where devout Muslims were legally obliged to decorate cakes with images of Muhammad. While “you wouldn’t say that about the Muslims” is a tedious argument, and one deployed increasingly often by Christians, it’s not, in this case, an entirely unreasonable position.
Hardline Christians see homosexuality as a (wrong) choice people make, or a psychological disorder. I recall watching the Reverend Willie McRea, an MP, once, being asked what support he would offer to a constituent who was a victim of homophobia. McRea replied that he would advise the young man not go down that route: basically, the best way to prevent homophobia is to stop being gay.
Meanwhile, Iris Robinson, wife of Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson, firmly believes that one can be counselled away from homosexuality.
These people are odd, certainly, but they are not fringe characters who can be dismissed as irrelevant to mainstream society in Northern Ireland.
And even if these views were not mainstream, that would not make the fundamentals of the case any different. But it does seem as if the Equality Commission is trying to drag a segment of Northern Irish society kicking and screaming into the secular world.
So who’s right? Who should win? Reader, I am about to break the columnist’s solemn covenant and admit: I don’t fully know. This is not as clear cut a case of discrimination as, say, barring a gay couple from a Bed and Breakfast: if the McArthurs had simply refused to sell a cake to Lee, that would be clear cut. But the cake was loaded, so to speak. Should this tricky case lead to a “conscience clause” in equality legislation, then one can imagine legitimisation of genuinely discriminatory practices.
At the same time, the McArthurs, are wrong, and one’s initial inclination is to side with the gay rights activist against the religious fundamentalists. But that’s the problem with defending freedom of conscience, (and its expression in freedom of speech). Everyone’s conscience is different.
Northern Ireland beat Finland 2-1, by the way. God’s clearly not very troubled by Sunday football.
This column was posted at indexoncensorship.org on April 2, 2015

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