ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

ACOMSDave Community Journalist

1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!

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1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!, happened.  An intrepid bunch of gays and lesbians marched through Belfast in the first Belfast Pride.  This was an auspicious day and has been rightly celebrated because it said we were more than just a court case (Jeffrey Dudgeon v the United Kingdom).  

In fact, we were and are!

But what people forget is that we didn’t just have a march (or in Belfast terms ‘a wee dander’), we also had a week of events. e.g.

 

  •  ‘Mixtures and Allsorts was in the Old Museum Arts Centre.  It was billed as a cabaret – we were required to bring our own refreshments – so we did! There was a vast range of performance styles:
  • large chunks of Martin Sherman’s ‘Bent’ done by the Gauntlet theatre group
  • The Confused Sisters juggled with flaming torches
  • Two women from Out and Out theatre company performed a dance, which was reminiscent of the beautifully choreographed love scenes from Desert Heart. 
  • Paul Johnston, of the Dublin-based mandance, did a beautiful, angular solo, described as being based on dreams
  • The Hole in the Wall gang (Eamon Freil, Hugh Jordan, and Brian Lynch) did various pieces, including some risque jokes.
  • The Queen’s University Drama Society produced an inverted parlour-farce
  • There was Mary Scarlett’s 20-year-old ‘Insight in the life of the”Heterosexual” (A married (male) couple trying to talk their rebellious son out of his obsession with …  wait for it … ‘het-ero-sex-ual-ity

All this was completed on a minuscule budget, and with the best-willed volunteers you could imagine.

For a first attempt, it was good, indeed it was brilliant and excellent, and obviously, the current Belfast Pride is radically different and has grown.  But what mustn’t be forgotten is that this first Belfast Pride came on the back of a historic judicial judgment in the Europe Courts which had been brought by Jeff Dudgeon with the support of so many individuals and groups throughout all of Great Britain and Ireland – from fundraisers in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Dublin, to people who distributed flyers and distributed them in venues everywhere.

1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered! 1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!

 

Belfast Pride is our pride – but remember we still have to continue and show who we are, and therefore what we are marching for yearly.

 

The full write-up of the first Belfast Pride can be found in the Linenhall Library archives, where copies of all the Gay Star, update, and upstart magazines have been placed for research.

 

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Brexit in one!

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Brexit in one!I have clearly stated many times that I found the departure from the EU to be a farce; so many lies, mistruths and out of it all we get the Brexit deal which is very close to scuppering the Good Friday Agreement.  An agreement which is not perfect, has at least allowed the people of N Ireland to live relatively peacefully, and for the LGBTQ+ community to continue to fight for their rights, and most of the political parties now in N Ireland at least on paper support our community.

As an example of how Brexit has failed, I would suggest reading the article in the Guardian ‘Out! How Brexit sent one UK tennis kit firm to Romania‘, which highlighted the plight of one small company that moved lock, stock and barrel to Romania.  And, I am not just talking about the company, but the owners with their children also.  

…The Walkingtons decided they had to relocate lock, stock and barrel with their two children – after whom the company is named – last autumn and are now in the process of moving into new premises in Romania, where they are not only free of Brexit bureaucracy but are also benefiting from abundant skilled labour and help from the country’s authorities…

But to further compound this story about one small company, there is evidence that a substantial amount of other small companies are doing the same with Department for International TradeBresit in one! advisors advising them to do so!

…Six months after the UK finally left the EU’s single market, thousands of other small companies have faced similar problems, and many have either relocated entirely to the EU or set up branches or warehouses inside the EU to avoid the export delays and costs. Advisers at the Department for International Trade have encouraged many to do so. The authorities in EU countries including the Netherlands, Austria and Romania are going out of their way to help UK companies shift their operations to the continent, knowing local jobs and new economic activity will be created…

This would tend to indicate a further weakening of the British economy.

Brexit in one!But bringing the article back to LGBTQ+ politics, I am afraid that the DUP’s latest little foray into trying to win the LGBTQ+ vote is limp handed.  A few words by one of the team which are almost repudiated the next day by the leader in terms of ‘others should be apologising to us’ does not indicate a party that has accepted us.  To this, we can also add the continued delay by the Prime Minister (Rt Hon Boris Johnston) with one review after another, and nothing actually happens – reminds me of Yes Minister – A Public Inquiry.

We also have various stories now highlighting how since the pandemic, incidents of violence to eh LGBTQ+ community have increased. 

These are not helped by the stories coming out of Hungary of violence being perpetuated on the LGBTQ+ community – and now we have the new EU chief Janez Jansa, Prime Minister of Slovenia, warning the EU that if it continues to try to impost ‘the west’s liberal views on Central Europe’ then it would be ‘the fastest road to collapse’ of the bloc.

 

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Homophobia and Terrorism are not limited to Muslims.

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Homophobia and Terrorism

Homophobia and Terrorism are not limited to Muslims, history shows that and often what we do not understand and fear (often irrationally) we throw out words like terrorism, not our people etc.

Andrew Pulver wrote an impassioned article on how journalism in all its forms needs to stop the ‘Toxic portrayals of Muslims’!  I would suggest that we need in the West, and in other cultures, to take a reality check.  The portrayals of terrorists as being only from one side of the world’s population is disingenuous.  All the major maritime powers in Europe sponsored pirates to enact terrorism on their rivals!  Then we have terrorists/freedom fighters, for example,   in 1867 there was the Clerkenwell explosion in London by the Fenians / Irish Republican Brotherhood (proto – IRA), in 1903 there were the Thessaloniki bombings by a Bulgarian group from Veles, mostly young graduates from the Bulgarian Men’s High School of Thessaloniki. Terrorism and Homophobia The list is endless, go and have a look at the Wikipedia article ‘Terrorism in Europe’ as a starting point.

But and it is a large BUT, terrorism by its very nature is subjective; dependent upon where you are with your life, your family, your community, your society, One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter

So, therefore, you must ask why am I Interested?  My interest lies in my knowledge of Muslims.  I have been lucky enough to work, live and make friends with Muslims within their society whilst working in the Middle East; I have also been able to have similar experiences in the Far East, Canada, South America, and Europe.  I have always found a welcome within these communities, and I have had many discussions covering all aspects of their and my own society over politics, religion, homosexuality, with these debates has come an understanding of the local fears, even the fear of loss of identity (the Northern Irish are not unique).

In an article published in LGBTQ Nation (commentary by Michael Jensen and Brent Hartinger) it highlighted the position that a few of the local queer Muslim’s had in Turkey, a country which is 97% Muslim and where LGBTQ rights have gone backwards in recent years.  But similar pressure is being placed on LGBTQ freedom in other parts of Europe, e.g., Hungary and Poland.  According to the European Union in 2020 43% of LGBTQ people, last year said they felt discriminated against, up from 37% in 2012.

So, you can from this short overview firstly that terrorism and homophobia are not just related to Muslim society.

We need to educate against toxic rhetoric and politics wherever it is shown.  We need to be vigilant locally and fight against what certain elements among the local politicians will repeatedly roll out – remember throughout history it has always been easy to use a minority as the whipping boy for society wrongs – the Jews when they no longer were willing financiers of the British Crown, and indeed with a number of European monarchies, the travellers, Jews, homosexuals by Nazi Germany, the travellers even today in the United Kingdom, and for certain parties in Northern Ireland politics the LGBTQ+ society.

 

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Virtual Belfast Reception

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Virtual Belfast ReceptionOn July 1st, 2021 the PinkNews, in partnership with Citi and the Rainbow Project, under the title “Virtual Belfast Reception” organised a panel discussion on LGBT+ equality in Northern Ireland.  The Virtual Belfast Reception online meeting involved Doug Beattie, UUP leader, Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein, Colm Eastwood, SDLP leader, Naomi Long, Alliance leader and justice minister, and Mal O’Hara, a Green Party councillor in Belfast and the event was moderated by John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project.
 
 
The virtual meeting was conducted through Zoom, with the audience being able to view but not comment except through the messenger facility of the program.  Areas under discussion were:
 
                • Transgender
                • Self ID Laws
                • LGBTQ+ and Education
                • Conversion Therapy

 

Obviously, during 1hr 30min+ discussion, there were sidetracks; the main one being over political parties and LGBTQ+ rights to which Paul Bradley, deputy leader of the DUP, said that in response to a question from Mr O’Doherty about the DUP and its history of negativity on LGBTQ+ issues, 

“I’m not going to defend some of the things that have been said over the years, because they have been absolutely atrocious. They’ve been shocking, so they have.
“I certainly couldn’t stand by many of those comments – in fact, all of those comments.
“Because I know that the hurt they have caused people and I know that fed into the hatred some people have had to endure in their life, and I think that’s absolutely wrong.
“I think the vast majority of those people that made those comments are no longer there, and the ones that are there have said that they have learned their lessons, that their language at times has not been right.
“It’s something I’ve brought up on numerous occasions with my own party because I think not sometimes, all the time, our language very much that we use as elected representatives has an impact in wider society.
“I can certainly say I apologise for what others have said and done in the past because I do think that there has been some very hurtful comments and some language that really should not have been used.”

(A full transcript can be found in the Newsletter link which is at the end of this article)

 

Now, this was a welcome response, however, it was then followed by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaking on Sunday, July 5th 2021|:

Mr Donaldson acknowledged past comments by members of the party had been “hurtful” to LGBT people here, before adding it was “not just in the case of the DUP”.

While the DUP leader said it is right “that we say sorry and acknowledge hurt”, Mr Donaldson went on to add: “Equally in time, I hope others will be able to acknowledge that they have caused hurt, for example to people from a strongly held faith perspective.”

This is the politician two shoe shuffle, give on one hand and then take away by blaming it all on someone else.

 

Much as Paul Bradly may wish, and indeed believes, that the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) is making strives to reform, it would seem that its current leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, has more in keeping with the leader he replaced Edwin Poots, or if you go back further Mrs Iris Robinson, a previous MLA and wife of the then First Minister ‘Peter Robinson’,  and ‘her’ psychologist who claimed that he could cure gays (gay conversion therapy).

 

Virtual Belfast Reception

 

 

Whilst I have concnetrated on the DUP during this virtual meeting, the other participants were very clear in the answers and supportive.  Some of the phrases which I have written down are:

  • Even though things have changed, there is ‘always a need to remain alert’.
  • If you ‘Stop pushing forward, then we will move back’
  • Even though we have had ‘Immense change, the lesson is we have to keep gong’
  • ‘Always think about those young people in turmoil’
  • ‘A Safe Place For All Of Our People’

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Travellers and Roma – Calling All LGBT+

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Calling ALL Travellers and Roma, June is PRIDE Month would you like to appear in the Digital Dublin Pride Parade Video?

 

If so then look at our Info Sheet 21 which is available for download, and it also contains a wealth of other interesting bytes of information for everyone, but especially for ‘Travellers and Roma’.

 

Travellers and Roma

 

Make Saving Simple

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Make Saving SimpleNow that the lockdown is easing, we all have hidden pressure to go out and enjoy ourselves, which leads to more expenditure.  However, if you follow this simple guide, you can ‘Make Saving Simple’, keep yourself in the black, and switch careful planning you can afford those guilty pleasures that we all long for.

The hated word in any discussion is ‘budget’, it normally causes more rows in a family circumstance than any other as you are talking about money and money is a limited resource.  However, if you implement a simple budget you will be surprised at how quickly (even from small amounts) your savings will develop.

Remember putting a budget is not about stopping you spending, it is about making you realise what you spend on, and then by looking at this expenditure you can decide what is important and what you can adjust to make a saving (if possible); or even, if you need to get help.

I have created a simple spreadsheet for those who have access to Microsoft Excel, and I also have created a PDF so that those who do not have excel can download the four sheets of paper and fill them in that way.

 

The four sheets are:

  • Summary
  • Needs
  • Debts-Savings
  • Wants

If you are using Excel, all you have to do is fill in the Needs / Debts-Savings / Wants sheets and the totals will automatically complete the Summary Sheet.  Then you will need to fill in your earnings figure.

If you are using the PDF sheets, you will have to fill each item in yourself, then use a calculator to get your totals on each sheet, then manually fill in the Summary Sheet and total the figures in the first section, and then fill in your earnings in the second section.

Once you have completed this then subtract your expenditure in box 1 from your earnings in box 2 – if you end up with a minus figure, then you will need to go back to box one and see what (if anything ) you can adjust so that you end up with a positive figure.

 

“When your income is £20 and spending is £19.98, the result is happiness. When your income is £20 and spending is £20.02, the result is misery.”

 

Downloads:

Don’t forget to contact us if you need further help!

Make Saving Simple - Contact Us

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Pandemic Impact on our LGBTQ+ Youth

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Pandemic Impact on our LGBTQ+ Youth

 

In 2018 whilst discussing ‘Rainbow Colours At Ards Town Hall’ reference was made to a report on suicide prevention from the World Health Organisation, Pandemic Impact on our LGBTQ+ Youthand the methods of measuring suicide attempts.  Reference was also made to the Rainbow Project report ‘Through Our Minds’ which indicated that 25.7% of those who responded, ‘had at least one attempt at suicide.’

But this is not the whole story, the following table gives a more concrete overview of the facts and figures:

General population (suicide attempt ever) LGBT population (suicide attempt ever) General population (suicide attempt past year) LGBT (suicide attempt past year)
Northern Ireland 4% 25.7% ? 6.17%
Great Britain 4.4% ? 0.5% 4.02%*
Ireland 7%** 21.4% 1.68%** 5.63%

 

*Excluding transgender people, recalculated on the basis of the two studies (2008; 2011) taken together
**Aged 17-25

 

LGBT Ireland’s Annual Report

LGBT Ireland’s Annual Report for 2020 published yesterday (May 10) highlighted how the LGBTQ+ community was affected by the COVID pandemic with a higher number than ever of younger people calling the LGBT Ireland helpline with a correlating uptake in online peer support groups….[FactcheckNI(https://factcheckni.org/articles/have-1-in-4-lgbt-persons-attempted-suicide/)]

So why am I raising this again?  We are all still living and working within the pandemic and its impact on all of the community within the United Kingdom.  However, the LGBT Ireland’s Annual Report covering the year 2020, has highlighted the LGBTQ+ community was affected by the COVID pandemic with a higher number that ever of young people calling the LGBT Helpline.

Pandemic Impact on our LGBTQ+ YouthBut in Northern Ireland, I would also suggest that the number of calls for support whether by phone, text or online will have gone up.  Our youth have also suffered from the impact of the pandemic, and so many reports, studies and articles over the period have indicated that for so many that had to return home from university halls, or from rented accommodation which they could no longer afford had the ‘return to the closet’ syndrome as they either were not out to their families, or their families preferred that they kept a low profile.

The cancelling of so many venues and the limitation of support groups has also brought further psychological pressure on our LGBTQ+ youth.

Indian Variant

Today we heard that we are moving forward towards new normality, however almost immediately we are being told about the ‘Indian’ variant and that if the numbers continue to increase from this it may lead to local or limited lockdowns. 

None of us knows the future, and indeed the one thing that is guaranteed apart from birth, death and taxes (which are bound to go up due to Brexit fallout and the pandemic costs) is that the pandemic is here forever, and that it is down to us all to be sensible and use the skills we have developed over the last 15+ months, but also that we need to think carefully on how we can support and care for our youth ( and indeed everyone).

 

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Hand Off – Gay Short Movie 2019 – Movie Review

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Hand OffHand Off is a movie written and directed by Chadlee Skrikker, is 24 minutes long and is about rugby in Cape Town, South Africa.  Jaco decides to admit his feelings about Willem just after they have come out of the changing room having cleaned up following rugby training. 

Willem is taken aback having had no inkling that Jaco was gay, and that he had feeling for him.  As they walk towards the car Willem walks on by leaving [Jaco] feeling isolated and downcast, and not knowing whether their friendship will continue.

He gets home and is met by his mother but moves away from her with a lame excuse and goes to his bedroom collapsing on his bed and falls into a fantasy world with an imaginary friend.  You can tell he is imaginary by the heavy gold on his forehead and his earrings – Leo then directs hisHand Off fantasy.  It at this stage almost has a feeling of Caravaggio or Sebastiane.  The languid bodies lying on rugs with cushions and roses set the scene.

Hand Off is a rugby term, it is when a ball-carrier is permitted to hand off an opponent provided excessive force is not used, to push him away whilst he (or she) continues with trying to get a try.

The actors are of a suitable build to all be rugby players, and indeed carry themselves as testosterone ladened lads. Jaco seems to move from training to his fantasy, all the while Willem is on the periphery reconciling what he has been told and trying to understand how it affects him and his friendship.

Jaco’s fantasy moves forward and becomes more sexually explicit, but the question that is raised is will he come back from fantasy?

Jaco then discovers that Willem (or someone) has told all his fellow team members that he is gay, and they take the action of shunning him with the stereotypical reactions that writers of these scenes often use.  He meets up with Willem expressing how he feels and Willem shows how good a friend he is and becomes the friend he was before Jaco came out.

Soundtracks:  there are several musical tracks used during the movie, but “Lucifer’s Tear” which was written by Ayden Marthinus stands out for me, and fortunately there seem to be three or 4 other tracks hidden away in YouTube.

 

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Northern Ireland Water and Meter Charges

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Northern Ireland Water at our doorstep

Ireland Northern Giants – Free photo on Pixabay

Northern Ireland Water is a finite resource.  Rainfall in Northern Ireland is variable, with the monthly rainfall varying from year to year.  According to statistics produced by Statista, since 2010, winter has on average been the wettest season, however, in 2019, winter was in fact the driest season with summer that year being the wettest.

Also, when compared to the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland receives less rain than both Scotland and Wales.

In a letter dated 12 April 2012, in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Northern Ireland Water stated that 25 reservoirs, which you would think might be enough for our needs.

However, Sir James Bevan in his March 2019 speech cautioned that the country is facing “an existential threat” and reaching “the jaws of death … we will not have enough water to meet our needs.”

With this in mind, I now would like to re-look at how the Northern Ireland Water organisation works.  NI Water is a Government Owned Company (GoCo).  The main characteristics of which are:

  • Its constitution is set out in Memorandum and Articles of Association.
  • It is unambiguously under public sector control.
  • It is established under and must conform with companies’ legislation.
  • Over 50% of ordinary share capital owned by the government.
  • Shareholders may receive regular dividend payments.
  • There is an accountability relationship with a sponsoring Department, and
  • It is permitted to recover costs and build up reserves through trading operations.

 

Northern Ireland Water

Sewage Treatment Works, Omagh © Kenneth Allen :: Geograph Ireland

In 2002 things were looking to be changed.  For decades domestic water and sewage services in N I had been provided without charge to customers.  Only non-residential customers received water bills and had water meters.  So suddenly out of the blue (or a government think tank), it was muted that all N Ireland water and sewerage services would become ‘self-financing.  Over the next two years exhaustive and extensive consultations on water reforms were carried out, with the aim of introducing water meters for new homes as well as water and sewer charges for all domestic customers.  The water charges plan was included in the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, introduced by the then secretary of states Peter Hain; and it was in parallel, that Northern Ireland Water Limited was created in April 2007.  But, due to the anti-water charges campaign, in 2007, the plans for water charges were abandoned.

Northern Ireland Water

File:Water meter with remote reading.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

But as I have alluded to water is a finite resource, and our climate and therefore our weather is changing.  The government is having to look closely at all areas of the country to see if there are ways in which the ‘users’ (that means you) can be made to think more carefully about the usage of resources, and this includes water.  The possibility of water charges being reintroduced is entirely possible when you also look at the debts which the country has ramped up over BREXIT and also Coronavirus (COVID-19), and the government seeks ways in which to reduce the National Debt.

 

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The Conversion Therapy Saga

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This Conversion Therapy Saga is yet again another reason why I deplore the UK Government’s lethargy in making “conversion therapy” illegal.  Here we have a man (Dr. Ole Ivar Lovaas) who developed “conversion therapy” but also tried to make autistic children “normal”.

Conversion Therapy

I have previously discussed “conversion therapy2 as applied to people within the LGBTQ+ community in my article ‘Conversion Therapy – Rethink Finally‘ published 11 September 2020

The worrying factor about both these therapies is that they in effect abuse the recipients, for the LGBTQ+ candidates they at least can make themselves heard about the abuse they received, for the autistic children it is extremely doubtful that they ever could or would be in such a position.

“No matter what form it takes, gay conversion therapy is going to be psychologically harmful,” Becker said. “They’re told that they can change this thing they can’t change, and it leads to devastating consequences.”

Dr. Lovaas died in 2010, however, his therapy for autistic children remains on the books I believe for ‘all states’ in the USA, and in only 20 states is gay conversion therapy banned.

 

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