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Being Homeless

17/01/2021 By ACOMSDave

Being Homeless

Being homeless is not normally a choice, it is usually forced upon individuals and families by circumstances over which they have little or no control.

Being Homeless

Research Matters wrote in March 2018, …Homelessness is a highly emotive issue and attention on the plight of those who are homeless in Northern Ireland has gained particular momentum…Young people who are homeless can have a range of complex needs resulting from mental health difficulties, family breakdown and childhood abuse…Family rejection resulting in a loss of accommodation and support networks was the most cited reason for homelessness amongst the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community…IN a study conducted by the Rainbow Project, it recommended developing protocols to enable the assessment of LGBT social housing applicants’ individual support needs and signposting vulnerable applicants to appropriate services.

In Dec 2020 David Levesley wrote in GQ …It’s been a bad year to be black or trans and it’s been an even worse year to be black, trans and queer if you don’t have a place to call home! His article incorporates a story about Sam who ended up in Amsterdam, Manchester and Birmingham and the difficulties of settling when you don’t know anyone or the culture. Ultimately he got lucky and heard about The Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT) who have been assisting queer youth at risk of homelessness since 1989.

Being Homeless - YOuth

The Simon Community in its report ‘Pathways to Youth Homelessness’ found that 82% of young people said they were straight whilst 18% identified as being gay, lesbian, bisexual or were unsure. This number is significant compared to 1.9% of the general population identifying as LGBT in a recent ONS survey (2015.

In may last year (2020) a task group was set up in Northern Ireland to help plan the regions homelessness response as it exited the Coronavius lockdown – my initial investigations have shown that the following groups would be joining this group:-

  • Depaul
  • Extern
  • First Housing
  • housing Rights
  • The Salvation Army
  • Simon Community
  • Welcome Organizations

but so far what I don’t see is any involvement of representative’s from the LGBTQ+ community, and taking into account the Simon Community figures 18% of young people who indicated they were homeless were either gay, lesbian, bisexual or were unsure, this over-sight by the organizers needs to be rectified!

Homelessness is something we can fix, along with children being hungry, we are supposedly a rich country, and if we are then how we deal with these social issues and ensure that people do not suffer is a mark of our society’s ability to be human.

 

Links

  • Five ways to help support the LGBTQ+ homeless
  • Pathways to Youth Homelessness – Simon Community
  • Northern Ireland Homelessness Task Group

 

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Filed Under: Campaigns, Community Journalist Tagged With: gay, homeless, homelessness, lesbian, LGBTQ, Northern Ireland, risk, youth

Gay Pride, Belfast 1991 – on to civil rights/equal citizenship

12/11/2020 By ACOMSDave

In 1991 the first Gay Pride in Belfast took place.  It was an event thought to be a non-starter, however the turnout of well over one hundred people for the ‘pride dander’ was simply fantastic.  The support from the Belfast public was beyond belief, as was the support in terms of bodies from the QUB Students Union and the Socialist Workers Movement, as well as our guests from Dublin, ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) – and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the dander and the crack afterwards.

 

How upstart, our own gay publication, remembered our dander:

 

Gay Pride

 

But a new tradition was also set for that march (dander) – that of the Pride T-shirt.  P A Maglochlainn, who was President of NIGRA (Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association) for a substantial number of years, recognised the importance of this inauguration and managed to collect a number of these during his lifetime and even was able to arrange for them to be on show a number of years later in the Central Library.

Since PA’s death, Barry his partner has been working to have his life’s work archived properly, and part of this is to have the T-Shirts placed somewhere so that people can access them and see the wealth of talent that has spread out from the initial showing.

Barry has kindly given me the task of gathering an example of each T-Shirt (or at the very least, a photo) which means that we have a pictorial record of part of our history.

So far, I have managed to collect the following, as you can see there are come gaps, are you able to help with an example of the missing T-Shirts, or at the very least a photograph or jpeg image for the record?  If so then please contact me as follows:

 

Email:  dtw.mcfarlane@hotmail.co.uk

 

 

Year Picture/Slogan  
1991 Gay Pride
1992 Gay Pride
1993 Gay Pride
1994 Gay Pride
1995 Gay Pride
1996 Gay Pride
1997
1998 Gay Pride
1999 Gay Pride
2000
2001
2002
2003 Gay Pride
2004
2005
2006 Gay Pride
2007 Gay Pride
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

I have two T-Shirts so far which I cannot tie to any year, would anyone have any idea:

  • Gay Pride
  • Gay Pride

Other articles on Pride:

  • Queeriosity – An Exhibition for Pride 2017
  • Visit ‘Pride’ in Spain – You Won’t Regret It!
  • Pride History
  • Baptist minister plans to “cure” homosexuality at Derry’s Pride parade
  • Belfast Pride 2015: sea of colour and party atmosphere as parade gets underway

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Filed Under: Campaigns, Community Journalist, History, Projects Tagged With: Belfast, dander, gay, Pride, T-Shirts

Gay Conversion Therapy – Government Cop Out

14/08/2020 By ACOMSDave

In June 2013, I wrote a short piece on Dr Paul Miller MD DMH MRC Psych as he had hit the headlines due to his ability to ‘cure’ gays through ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’.  Also, his close connections to ex-Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Iris Robinson.

Why am I re-raising this again you may ask; well I was reading some old Hansards’ and came across a report on Dr Miller talking to a

NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE FOR HEALTH, SOCIAL SERVICES AND PUBLIC SAFETY

where he was talking about suicide and in particular with young men.  He also made reference to his Christian beliefs in this report.  He outlined all his experience and qualifications – which  to a layman seem to be very exhaustive.

Now back to today, Dr Miller is Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychogeriatrician. Clinical Lead and Responsible Officer at Mirabilis Health which is based in Glengormley.  A recent report (Announced Care Inspection Report 27 March 2017) from The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority found no issues with the establishment and the 12 patients who submitted questionnaire responses indicated that the service is well managed.

Now the therapy system that Dr Miller uses is:

EMDR therapy is broken down into eight different phases, so you’ll need to attend multiple sessions. Treatment usually takes about 12 separate sessions.

Phase 1: History and treatment planning

Your therapist will first review your history and decide where you are in the treatment process. This evaluation phase also includes talking about your trauma and identifying potential traumatic memories to treat specifically.

Phase 2: Preparation

Your therapist will then help you learn several different ways to cope with the emotional or psychological stress you’re experiencing.

Stress management techniques such as deep breathing and mindfulness may be used.

Phase 3: Assessment

During the third phase of EMDR treatment, your therapist will identify the specific memories that will be targeted and all the associated components (such as the physical sensations that are stimulated when you concentrate on an event) for each target memory.

Phases 4-7: Treatment

Your therapist will then begin using EMDR therapy techniques to treat your targeted memories. During these sessions, you will be asked to focus on a negative thought, memory, or image.

Your therapist will simultaneously have you do specific eye movements. The bilateral stimulation may also include taps or other movements mixed in, depending on your case.

After the bilateral stimulation, your therapist will ask you to let your mind go blank and notice the thoughts and feelings you’re having spontaneously. After you identify these thoughts, your therapist may have you refocus on that traumatic memory, or move on to another.

If you become distressed, your therapist will help bring you back to the present before moving on to another traumatic memory. Over time, the distress over particular thoughts, images, or memories should start to fade.

Phase 8: Evaluation

In the final phase, you’ll be asked to evaluate your progress after these sessions. Your therapist will do the same.

I am not saying EMDR is not successful, EMDR therapy has proven to be very effective in the treatment of PTSD for instance, however as being gay is not a medical condition, and possibly using it as a form of Gay Conversion treatment of ‘gays’ it would seem more like a version of brainwashing.

Brainwashing - Gay Conversion Therapy

Now the LGBT community has been fighting for gay conversion therapy to be banned in the UK.  Indeed in 2018, then-prime minister Theresa May’s LGBT action plan said the government would bring forward proposals to “end the practice of conversion therapy” as a priority; however the current Conservative equalities minister Kemi Badenoch says the so-called therapy is a ‘very complex issue’ and the department was unable to produce a timetable for any legislation or forthcoming consultation.

Westminster and Gay Conversion Therapy
Conservative Government Cop Out

Research

Belfast psychiatrist Miller to face cash dealings probe – Headline from 18 April 2013

  • From <https://queerarchive.net/belfast-psychiatrist-miller-to-face-cash-dealings-probe-headline-from-18-april-2013/>

The ‘gay cure’ experiments that were written out of scientific history

  • From <https://mosaicscience.com/story/gay-cure-experiments/>

Treatments of homosexuality in Britain since the 1950s—an oral history: the experience of patients

  • From <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC344257/>

Conversion Therapy

  • From <https://www.stonewall.org.uk/campaign-groups/conversion-therapy>

The cruel, dangerous reality of gay conversion therapy

  • From <https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gay-conversion-therapy>

Gay Conversion Therapy’s Disturbing 19th-Century Origins

  • From <https://www.history.com/news/gay-conversion-therapy-origins-19th-century>

I tried gay conversion therapy and it was my own horror film

  • From <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/31/gay-conversion-therapy-the-miseducation-of-cameron-post>

UK government hasn’t banned gay conversion therapy two years after pledge to end practice

  • From <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gay-conversion-therapy-uk-ban-government-a9520751.html>

EMDR Therapy: What You Need to Know

  • From <https://www.healthline.com/health/emdr-therapy#how-it-works>

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Filed Under: Community Journalist, Government & Politics Tagged With: brainwashing, conversion, gay, gay conversion, Stormont, Therapy

Have you any Gay Images From Northern Ireland

21/11/2016 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Gay History

northern gay and block mounted paisley ayatollah


 
Northern Ireland’s gay history is slowly coming to light in our national institutions.  Recently we spotted the Northern Gay and block mounted Paisley ayatollah  on display at the Ulster Museum.
This is only part of some of our history, but the museums and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) have more, and indeed are always looking for more material to add to their archives and develop their ability to reflect everyone’s history and in particular those of the minority groups which are often under represented.
A quick search on the PRONI websites brought up 15 distinct areas:

  • Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Advocate
  • Sexuality
    …If you think you’re gay or a lesbian, you may be worried about how people will react if you tell them…
  • Sexual orientation discrimination

…It’s against the law for an employer to discriminate against you because of your sexual orientation. You’re also protected against harassment or bullying at work…

  • Information and support for people with HIV and AIDS

…There are support services, information and advice available across Northern Ireland for people newly diagnosed or living with HIV…

  • Support services for victims
    …If you have been a victim of crime or abuse in Northern Ireland, there are organisation and groups who can give you free advice, support and practical help to help you deal with the impact of…
  • QueerSpace
  • Hate crime
    …Hate crime is a crime against a person usually because of their race, religious belief, sexual orientation, political opinion, gender identity or disability. Hate crime can take many forms…
  • Pushing the boundaries: Society & law
    …A Series of talks exploring society and the law which consider broad areas relating to the changing perception of what constitutes acceptable behaviour within society…
  • Rainbow Project
  • Human rights in the workplace

…Your human rights are protected by the law. If your employer is a public authority, they must follow the principles of the Human Rights Act…

  • Equal State Pension rights for transsexual people
    …Transsexual people can apply for equal treatment rights for social security purposes. This could mean getting the State Pension paid early, or having some National Insurance contributions…
  • Easter Rising: ‘Irish volunteers centenary project’

…PRONI was pleased to host ‘Irish Volunteers Centenary Project’, a talk by Donal McAnallen about experiences in the Easter Rising…

  • Talking to your child about sex and teenage pregnancy
    …Young people who can talk about sex with their parents tend to delay having sex and are more likely to use contraception when they do. However, you may find the idea slightly awkward, or you…
  • Religion or belief discrimination

…It is against the law for an employer to discriminate against you because of your religion or certain beliefs. Find out about your rights and what you can do if you’re worried about religion…

An important thing for all of us in the LGBT community of Northern Ireland is our history, but unfortunately a lot of it has been forgotten, or not written down, or in some cases is still hidden away in individuals homes.  We would like to develop further our access to our history, by asking everyone to dig our their history and by contacting us we will work with the museums and PRONI to develop a central resource.

Please do contact us with details of what you have and we will then arrange with the correct repository.  All information will remain confidential regarding your personal details, unless yu expressly give us permission to disclose them when lodging the items on your behalf.

Further reading:

  • NIDirect-PRONI
  • Jake O’Kane – Ulster Museum Picture – Ulster Museum picture of Northern Ireland Tourist Board stand from 1964 promoting a ‘Gay Friendly NI’. If only.
  • Gay life in Northern Ireland is under threat – time to act

 

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Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia, Campaigns, History Tagged With: ayatollah, gay, history, images, PRONI, ulster museums

Calm down, the Tories haven’t abandoned Alan Turing – they have just ditched an SNP attempt to claim credit

22/10/2016 By ACOMSDave

Alan Turing - Pardon

 

It is a good thing that Theresa May’s Conservative government is introducing an Alan Turing Law to pardon gay men convicted of historical victimless sexual crimes – that is what I wrote for The Independent last month. No one should be criminalised for being gay. At the start of the century, I was still policing these sex crimes as a police officer until they were repealed by the Labour government.

Source: Calm down, the Tories haven’t abandoned Alan Turing – they have just ditched an SNP attempt to claim credit

 

tory-mp-sam-gyimah-bore-the-brunt-of-internet-outrage-because-of-his-filibustering

It doesn’t surprise me that the government reneged on their promises – they have continuously done this across so many platforms, that the difficulty is in realising when they will actually tell the truth and stick by the agreed word and promises.

The article written above is clearly a white washing attempt to try and get them out of a hole that they have dug themselves into.  The comment by Of Independent Mind immediately following this article is succinct and factual, and shows how two faced our Prime Minister and her government are in relation to the proposed law to pardon ‘gay’ people who have been done an injustice due to society’s inability to accept them!

I ask you to read the following article and understand why it shouldn’t just be a pardon; pardoning is only a piece of paper, it does not adjust the lives and balance the lives of those men and women who have suffered unjustly for crimes that ‘are not crimes’!

  • Gay men’s lives were ruined by the British state: a pardon is not enough   –  Jonathan Cooper

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Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: Alan Turing, filly busting, gay, LGBT, Prime Minister, Teresa May

Visit ‘Pride’ in Spain – You Won’t Regret It!

22/10/2016 By ACOMSDave

Pride 01Pride in Spain – Always!!!

What is it like being gay in Spain? Well like any question of this ilk, it depends on what you are looking for; but for any Spaniard it means one thing – BEING PROUD TO BE A SPANIARD.  They have pride in their country and their culture. Some of the major cities have a thriving LGBT culture, with clubs and bars, and other venues, but most often you will find that in Spain being gay means you have to travel if you want to socialise. That is not to say you won’t find gay friends in the small towns and villages, but it is difficult unless you are using the internet and apps on your phone – and remember internet access can be expensive in Spain, but a lot of bars/restaurants/cafes offer free internet so the possibility is there.

The following cities run Pride events during the season:

Pride in Bendirom

  • Benidorm

barcelona-viewpoint

  • Barcelona

Indeed this year the Benidorm Tourist Foundation,  travelled to Stockholm, along with Turespana and the Valencian Tourism Agency for the Stockholm Pride 2016 LGBT Festival. The objectives of Visit Benidorm where two fold, firstly to promote Benidorm Pride, one of the resort’s most important LGBT assets; and secondly to demonstrate to Sweden’s gay community that Benidorm can offer year-round advantages including LGBT accommodation, beaches, food, sports and leisure opportunities.

 

  • LGBT Rights in Spain
  • LGBT Rights in Europe

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Filed Under: Community Journalist Tagged With: Barcelona, Benidorm, bi-sexual, gay, lesbian, LGBT, Pride, Spain, transgender

Boys On Film 2: In Too Deep

15/08/2016 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

BOYS ON FILM 2
In Too Deep
Peccadillo Pictures
2007
5 060018 651637
peccapics.com
Boys on Film 2: In Too DeepThe title of this collection In Too Deep (sounds, well, it is, a bit ‘nudge-winkery’, but the reference is to one contribution (Kali Ma), set near a swimming pool, and implicitly to some sexual / emotional encounters in the nine movies on offer here. Two are from the USA, both set in New York City, two from Australia both set in Sydney, and one each from Sweden, Canada, France, Mexico (Bramadero, a word meaning number of – ambiguous – things. It is practically a dance piece, two beautiful men meet, it is hardly social-realism, maybe it is ‘magic realism’ in a building which was either abandoned in mid-build, or possibly it is on a major public holiday but the occupied buildings we see are not en fête; no bunting, no banners, no people, and is deserted. The men have sex, and… stirring… it is). The actors and director, as in the rest if these reviews, will be unnamed, as they are available on Peccadillo’s website.
Canada’s and one of Australia’s contributions are very short, The Island shows the Director-performer, (Trevor Anderson) trudging through northern Alberta, the snow is deep, but so packed he can walk on it – for a person from damp, ‘temperate’ Ireland, it’s just a bit seeing him walk on water. ‘The island’ is imaginary, a macho man phoning-into a US talk show suggested that all “homos” should be dumped on an island to “give each over AIDS”, and die out. Do such people think we breed? Where do Gay women fit in? And are there no bigots in Canada? If there are, no Canuck seems prepared to own up to it. While going walkabout in snowy Alberta Trevor daydreams about this “homo Utopia”, at which point the film bursts into full glorious [Techni(?)]color and animation. The full northerners’ nonsense notions about warm countries comes in full spate. Sun, check; sex, check; sangria, or vino anyway, check. There are no typhoons, hurricanes, or tsunamis. This too-short short is a real charmer.
Love Bite involves two teenage blokes (mid / late teens), in one of their bedrooms, smoking a spliff. One attempts to tell the other, very handsome, bloke, that he has a secret. For some reason said bloke thinks he is queer and is disgusted, a wee piece unlikely in a major Oz city these days, but let that particular hare sit — the boy is a werewolf. The end of the vid is very gory. The performers are Will Field and Aidan Calabria. The other item is Working It Out about the problem of a couple in a commercial gym, one is consumed with jealousy. His partner tries to calm him down. The chap isn’t having it, he is the sort of person who ‘dresses’ for the Gym, his ensemble is red, including a baseball cap he wears reversed. (Is this a ‘dig’? The fashion among US teens died the death about 1990.) Needless to say Mr. Jealous is the one who gets off with the guy who joined them on their exercise machines. The tale is a bit glib, the performers were not terribly engaging and gyms are not very photogenic. This is not an ex cathedra statement, probably everybody else who has watched this little comedy of modern manners thought it was hilarious. I was slightly bored, and would have gone on to the next item, if i were not in ‘reviewer’ mode. The actual next (and last) ‘item’ was Futures & Derivatives.
It was interesting because one could barely grasp the gist of the thing. It is, on the face of it, about a portly ‘businessman’ trying to impress a (very Big Business)-man on how up to speed is the accountancy (?) firm he works for. It isn’t, really. An outside expert is brought in to put a ‘presentation’ onto DVD, said ‘expert’ works through the night. There’s an arnacho-hippie under that suit’n’tie. He creates a serviceable DVD, though it also contains images of calm seas and cloud formations. He decorates the office walls with large paper flowers and other decs. Which turn-on the office drones when they arrive the next morning. Mr. Big, Mister Beauchamp (pronounced ‘bo champ’) seems to be able to take all the extraneous effects in his stride, and the contract (content unspecified) is given to the company.
Lucky Blue refers to a budgerigar, the pet of a travelling family, ‘carnival’ workers, in Sweden. An image of Lasse, the cute son of the family, is on the cover of this vid, behind his shoulder is the back of Kevin (Kevin? – in Sweden?) the tall, slender, blond boy he lusts after. The end of the yarn has Lasse singing a silly love song to Kevin. It is, officially, a contribution to a ‘talent show’ – the boys kind-of get away with it. And, implicitly, live happily ever after. Yes, it is sweet, but not tooth-, or mind-rottingly so.
The puzzlingly named Cowboy, from Germany, features an estate agent or surveyor, played by Oliver Scherz, sizing up a farm that has fallen on hard times; rusty machinery, a house dissolving into the overgrown vegetation. He encounters the only resident, a beautiful wild boy; tall, slender, blue-eyed, blond (any devout Nazi’s wet dream, Pit Bokowskipossibly more than metaphorically), played by Pit Bokowski, (info for impatient persons who may want to Google his ‘particulars’ asap). They meet at the ruined farmhouse and out-buildings and engage in interestingly explicit sex, the wild boy remains on the farm while the estate agent drives away to his city home, and girlfriend.
Weekend in the Countryside features the lovely Théo Frilet and Pierre Moure, and a ‘mature’ man who seems to be the owner of the farm, or small estate, the two young men are staying on. The narrative is slightly off-centre. Théo’s character is afraid of the dogs the man keeps. The latter is relaxed about the matter, (it is not stated – but the great Napoléon was, after all, – terrified of cats), but Pierre Moure’s character, apparently is not. Théo / Charles, goes to swim in the nearby river and encounters the three barking dogs. He takes to his heels, trips, and takes up a self-defensive, fœtal, posture, lying on the ground. The dogs’ master calls them off and apologises. Théo leaves the town by train, the other young man goes to the station, and sneers through the train window, “pedé”, Englished as “faggot”, but he had approached Charles in the shower. He placed his hand on Charles’s (rather lovely) bosom – and was, gently, rejected. So who was the queer? This is an interestingly ambiguous ending – it probably would not be as effective in the Anglosphere. It’s not that we are ‘superior’, or more ‘advanced’, we are actually more crude. Think of the situation bisexuals find themselves in, in the US and the UK, despite the – English, in particular, taking a high and mighty attitude to ‘America’. Incidentally, this isn’t ‘Anglophobia’, a Mortal Sin according to Ireland’s ‘revisionists’, – it is a observable fact of sexual culture.
Kali Ma is set in New York City, and features what is (or was) called in the US an ‘East Indian’ mother and son i. e. not a Native ‘Red Indian’ (a designation deeply resented by Native Americans). ‘Ma’ is played by Kamini Khanna, who is, well… oblong  She is seen, in the opening scenes dancing, singing – and cooking.  Almost simultaneously, it seems, we see her son in, presumably his High School, ogling a honkie athlete (?) showering. He then goes to the

Manish Dayal

NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 04: Actor Manish Dayal attends the “The Hundred-Foot Journey” New York premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on August 4, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)


locker room and changes his clothes, we see his (Manish Dayal)’s fine, quite athletic, body. There is a close-up of his neat bum, wrapped in his gunks (underpants for the uncultured). He gets beaten up by a honkie (Brendan Bradley) and is seen lying in the locker room with messages written all over his naked body. One is the ambiguous “Property of Kit” (it may not be ‘Kit’ as Manish’s lovely neck is not flat), “Fag” is prominent. ‘Kit’, if my well-out-of-prescriptionBrendan Bradley specs are not failing me, is not the boy in the shower.
This is where cuddly ‘Ma’ (I hope this isn’t a Hindi or Urdu word) becomes ‘Kali’ (goddess of destruction and even death). This has happened before, and her son had told her the bullying was a thing of the past. She is seen martially tramping to the house of the honkiie boy, (on a rather grand Estate / Scheme, the kitchens are 21st century ‘state of the art’ (yes; I live in a hovel)). When she raps on his door, he (Brendan Bradley) is sneerily amused. He makes crude remarks about the boy he enjoys bullying. She chases him around his own house, and and out into a swimming pool area. There they have a (very funny) fight, choreographed by Ron Keller of KFX Entertainment. Miraculously, she ties him to a metal chair with her pashmina, and tosses him into the pool.
Her son (his name is spoken in the course of the action, but I can’t interpret it, yes, not merely poverty stricken, but ancient too) appears at this point. He dives into the water, unties ‘Kit’ and revives him.
In the next scene, the boys (in the same now very dry-looking, clothes they were seen wearing in the course of the action are sat at a table. ‘Ma’ places the feast she has prepared before them. Then orders them to “EAT!” They look slightly rebellious at first, but when she barks the order at them, they grab – at the same piece of bread. Neither of them really objects to this improper piece of table manners.
What happens next is left to the viewers’ imagination[s] – fevered in my case…
This wee gem, sorry for the cliché, – but it is, – was “Written and Directed by Soman Chainani, and was “Made in partial fulfillment of the Degree Requirements of the MFA [Master of Fine Arts – we hope] Film Program at Colombia (New York City – we hope, arís – upstart]. Not being familiar with Indian sub-continent languages, and too idle to ‘Google’, we don’t know this person’s gender, (possibly a Gay man?)
If this spritely, professional-looking movie is only ‘partially’ part of a Colombia University degree, they are clearly worth having.
There is one slip in continuity, as noted above. Other ambiguities are meant to be there.
Seán McGouran
 
Links:

  • Amazon.co.uk – Boys On Film 2: In Too Deep [DVD] [2008]

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Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With: boys, cowboys, gay, love, movies, werewolves

Maggie & Me

21/02/2016 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

“UNEMBARRASSED (PLASTIC?) HALF-JOCK”
Maggie & MeMaggie & Me
Damian Barr
Bloomsbury
ISBN 978-1-4088-3809-9

This is a sort-of autobiography of a man in his mid-thirties, of (religiously) mixed parents in industrial Scotland. Such things matter in the central belt of Scotland, but it is more a matter of ethnic origin than religious feeling. The vast majority of RCs in Scotland are of Irish origin, and that mark (of Cain?) can stretch well beyond the fifth generation. Damian Barr’s ‘Catholic’ parent was his mother who was religiously indifferent, if not somewhat hostile to the church, on the grounds that she was divorced. ‘Damian’ is definitely a ‘Catholic’ name, it became popular in the twentieth century due to a Belgian priest who ministered to lepers in Molokai a south Pacific island. He (Mr. Barr) may, given his age, have been named for the central character in a Hollywood horror movie. Given that that character was the Devil, no less, in disguise, that notion may be inaccurate. But there were an awful lot of ‘Damian’s’ so named in the late 1970s an early ’80s. The Belgian missionary’s surname was rendered ‘Damien’.

Damian Barr was sent to State schools rather than semi-independent Catholic ones. Despite the ‘Taig’ name he wasn’t given too much hassle. That, in ever-increasing quantities, was brought on by the fact that he was deemed to be queer quite early in his schooldays. ‘Gay Barr’, ‘Gaymian’ and other more brutal nicknames followed him from primary to secondary school. That he was very tall and willowy from his very early teens didn’t help, nor that he was the smartest in his class. His first encounter with genuine disappointment was not getting a big prize in his secondary (the Scottish equivalent of a Grammar) school for being an all-round brilliant pupil. He was half way out of his seat before another boy’s name was called, and he was surprised at how angry and disappointed he was. Despite that, he tended to win every other prize worth having, including one to study in Cambridge. He had been expecting to go to Strathclyde. He wasn’t snooty about that eventuality, but Cambridge was a usefully long way away from prying family, neighbours and ‘friends’.

It really isn’t much of a ‘story’ but it is very well written and he tells us about his intimate friendship with a handsome fair haired boy, “Mark”, who decides in their very early teens that there is something wrong with the relationship. He (Mark) become heavily involved with girls, a large plurality of them. He doesn’t get forced into marriage because the girls, mostly, insist on condoms being used. Mark acknowledges Damian when the latter returns to the isolated housing estate (called ‘schemes’ in Scotland) on the periphery of Glasgow they lived in. Some ‘schemes’ are enormous, the ‘planners’ forgot to include amenities, like shops, much less social spaces like club premises; churches and church halls weren’t even an afterthought. Public transport was heavily used for shopping (women had to travel into Glasgow, up to twenty miles away, to get basics. Entrepreneurship in these matters was entirely in Indian hands. The grocer’s son encountered in school was called ‘Ahmed’.

Damian eventually discovers the deeply closeted Gay life of his school, his scheme, and later the ‘Gay Scene’ in central Glasgow where he had happy times in the pubs and discos. He was earning money working part time and weekends in shops mostly, and had something like genuine privacy because none of his elders were particularly interested in him, or his younger sister. They were quite enthusiastic about pointing out that she was more masculine than he was. This tomboy eventually settled down, and trained as a nurse, after Damian made good his escape to Cambridge, then London. (His family were quite proud of the fact that he got to university, especially one of the few they could name.)

This is a fairly well-trodden path in terms of queer autobiography, except for its straightforward approach to his sexuality. He writes at one point “I was gay” a simple, slightly relieved, acknowledgement of a fact. There are no dramatics, melo-, or otherwise. There are a number of comic interludes in this narrative from his schooldays to disastrous job interviews. Towering over teachers, school bullies, and interviewers isn’t always useful, it can provoke some into pointless aggression, Pointless, because Damian Barr could probably pick such people up and give them a good shake. He also encounters men he has made contact with through advertisements in a magazine made up of adverts for, mostly, unwanted hardware. They are mostly middle-aged and not quite the Adonai they implied in their ads.

Most readers will probably enjoy this well-told tale, and find an awful lot of points in common with his progress through his adolescence. And if you try the internet you might get this treat for pennies (not that one begrudges Damian a good return on the work he put into this text).

Seán McGouran

PS Thatcher doesn’t loom large, or small, in this text – quotes from the good Lady preface each chapter – in the manner of uplifting Victorian books.

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Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Catholic, Damian Barr, gay, Maggie, private school, public school, queer, RC

Britain’s concentration camps for gay men

22/01/2016 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

 
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Historian and author Simon Webb writes about the gay men who were kept in concentration camps in the UK.

We are most of us aware that gay men were routinely sent to the concentration camps of the Third Reich for no other reason than that their sexuality was unacceptable to the Nazis.
A special section of the Gestapo, the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion was set up by Heinrich Himmler in 1936, with the avowed intention of rooting out homosexuality wherever it was to be found in Germany.
In Britain during the 1930s and 1940s, gay men were certainly imprisoned for what was then classified as criminal behaviour, but few people know that there were also concentration camps operating in this country between 1940 and 1946, to which one special category of gay men were sent.
In 1940, following the fall of France, an estimated 30,000 Polish soldiers arrived in Britain; men who had fought alongside the French army in an effort to stave off the invading Germans.
They were led by a former Prime Minister of Poland, General Wladyslaw Sikorski. Fearing that this country was itself about to be invaded, these troops were rushed to Scotland to defend the east coast against possible landings of German troops launched from Norway.
Britain was thus indebted to the new Polish government-in-exile, which was led by Sikorski. Without the Polish troops, Scotland would have been all but undefended against German attack.

General Sikorski was not universally popular with his fellow countrymen and opposition groups emerged which threatened his position as leader of the Polish government and commanding officer of the tens of thousands of Polish soldiers.
The solution, at least as far as Sikorski was concerned, was simple. These enemies would have to be neutralised.

General Sikorski – the man responsible for the concentration camps in Scotland
On 18 July 1940, General Sikorski told the Polish National Council in London: “There is no Polish judiciary. Those who conspire will be sent to a concentration camp.”
Since he and the others were likely to be in Britain for the foreseeable future, it was plain that the concentration camp of which he talked, would be set up in this country.
General Marian Kukiel, appointed Commander of Camps and Army Units in Scotland by Sikorski, received a secret order relating to what were described as, ‘an unallocated grouping of officers’, who were to be held in a special camp.
Not only did Sikorski wish to see senior officers and political rivals who might challenge his authority tucked out of the way, he also wished to purge the Polish army of what he termed, ‘Person of improper moral level.’
General Sikorski was an austere and autocratic leader and had very strong ideas on what constituted acceptable behaviour.
He loathed drunks, gamblers, the sexually promiscuous and especially homosexuals.
So it was that along with all the men he feared might interfere with his leadership of the Polish government-in-exile, generals and senior politicians from pre-war Poland, Sikorski made the decision to lock up many other men of whose conduct he happened to disapprove.
The site chosen for this, the first concentration camp to be established in Britain, was the Isle of Bute.

Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, before the Second World War. The first Polish concentration camp was established here in 1940
The inmates of the new camp were at first housed in tents. Not all were military men.
Among the first to be imprisoned there were men such as Michael GrazynskI, President of the Polish Scouting Association. Another important prisoner was Marian Zyndram-Kosciakowlski; who was Prime Minister of Poland from 1935-1939.
The atmosphere in the camp on the Isle of Bute was toxic.
The senior officers, no fewer than twenty generals were held captive there at various times, refused to have anything to do with what were known as the ‘pathological cases’; I.e. the drunks and homosexuals.
This led to the development of a sub-culture of gay prisoners, who tended to stick together; a situation which represented something of a scandal to those running the camp and it was decided that the ‘pathological’ types should be separated from the political prisoners.
A new and harsher camp was set up on the Scottish mainland at Tighnabruich and the gay prisoners transferred there.
This village, voted in 2002 ‘the prettiest village in Argyll, Lomand and Stirlingshire’, is on the coast, facing the Isle of Bute. The commandant of the new camp was Colonel Wladyslaw Spalek.
How was it possible that the Polish government-in-exile was allowed to operate concentration camps in this way, without any objections from the British government?
After the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, the British needed all the help they could get to defend their country against a German invasion.
The Allied Forces Act was accordingly passed that same year.
This gave the governments-in-exile of Poland, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium and Czechoslovakia the legal right to raise their own independent forces from among citizens of their countries resident in Britain.
Their army camps and military bases were to be regarded as the sovereign territory of the various countries concerned and, as such, immune from interference by the British police or any other authorities.
How this worked in practice was that if General Sikorski took a dislike to any Polish person living in this country, he was able to draft that person into his army and then have him arrested by the military police and taken off into captivity as either a deserter or mutineer.
This neat little trick meant that any Polish man whose behaviour, sexual or otherwise, did not meet with Sikorski’s approval was apt to find himself being shipped off to Scotland and held behind barbed wire.
In another grim echo of the situation in Nazi Germany, not only were gay men marked down for imprisonment in the camps; communists and Jews were also likely to fall foul of the Polish government in London.
One of the most famous prisoners on the Isle of Bute was the writer, journalist and biographer of Stalin; Isaac Deutscher.
Although born in Poland, Deutscher, a Jew, had emigrated to Britain where he made a life for himself before the outbreak of war in 1939.
In 1940, following Dunkirk and the Fall of France, he travelled to Scotland to volunteer for the Polish army which was now based there.
No sooner had he joined up, than Deutscher found himself arrested and sent to the camp at Rothesay.
Being both a Jew and also a communist, he was regarded as a dangerous subversive by senior figures in General Sikorski’s administration.
Rumours began to circulate among MPs in London that something unsavoury was going on in Scotland.
Names began to emerge of Polish citizens being held for no apparent reason in secret installations.
In all cases, the men being detained seemed to be Jews.
On February 19 1941, for example, Samuel Silverman, MP for Nelson and Colne, raised the question in the House of Commons of two Jewish brothers called Benjamin and Jack Ajzenberg. These men had been picked up by Polish soldiers in London and taken to a camp in Scotland.
The following year, Adam McKinley, MP for Dumbartonshire in Scotland, asked in the House what was happening on the Isle of Bute.
The government, which had no wish to upset a valuable ally, refused to provide any information.
Under the terms of the Allied Forces Act, the British had in any case no legal right to interfere in what was happening at camps and army bases being operated by the Polish Government in Exile.
Having found that they were apparently able to operate concentration camps on British soil with complete impunity, the Polish leadership opened new facilities for holding political prisoners and others at Kingledoors, Auchetarder and Inverkeithing.
The last named of these was located just eight miles from Edinburgh.
These were dreadful places which looked like the traditional idea of a concentration camp; barbed wire fences, primitive accommodation and watch towers containing armed guards.
Those living nearby heard rumours of maltreatment, starvation, beatings and even the death of inmates.
In a number of cases, the reports of deaths by shooting turned out to be quite true. On 29 October 1940, for instance, a Jewish prisoner called Edward Jakubowsky was shot dead in the camp in Kingledoors, for allegedly insulting a guard.
The Polish camps were to operate for another six years.
Increasing unease on the part of British MPs and others, led to questions being asked in the House about what precisely was going on in Scotland.
Matters came to a head on 14 June 1945. Robert McIntyre, the Member for the Scottish constituency of Motherwell, stood up in the House and asked the following question:
“Will the government make provision for the inspection, at any time, by representatives of the various districts of Scotland of any penal settlements, concentration camps, detention barracks, prisons, etc. within their area, whether these institutions are under the control of the British, American, French or Polish governments or any other authority; and for the issuing of a public report by those representatives?”
This caused something of a sensation; the suggestion that there were concentration camps in Scotland.
That same day, Moscow Radion made the same accusation, citing the detention of a Jewish academic called Dr Jan Jagodzinski in a camp at Inverkeithing.
This provoked widespread interest and the world’s press began to ask what was happening in these Polish camps.

Cutting from the Brisbane Courier and News, 15 June, 1945
In an attempt to defuse the anger being felt, the Polish government-in-exile agreed to allow journalists to visit the camp at Inverkeithing.
This action did little to reassure anybody. The first prisoner to whom reporters spoke turned out to be yet another Jew, by the name of Josef Dobosiewicz.
He alleged that a prisoner had recently been shot dead in the camp. The commandant conceded that this was true, but claimed that the dead man had been trying to escape.
Once again, the local police had been powerless to act, under the terms of the Allied Forces Act.
A year after the Second World war had come to an end, the camps were still in existence and still seemingly holding Jews.
On 16 April 1946, the MP for Fife West, William Gallacher, asked the Secretary of State for War to look into the case of two more Jews being held in a camp in Scotland; David Glicenstein and Shimon Getreudhendler.
It is impossible at this late stage to know precisely what was happening in these camps.
That they were in fact concentration camps is undeniable; that after all is what general Sikorski had announced that he would be setting up.
We have no idea at all how many gay men were sent to the camps, nor how long they were held there.
The same is true for the statistics relating to communists and Jews.
What is beyond dispute is that from 1940 onwards, men in this country were being arrested and taken to concentration camps for no other reason than that they were gay.
Simon Webb is the author of ‘British Concentration Camps: A Brief History from 1900 – 1975′.

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Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia, History Tagged With: concentration, concentration camps, gay, history, LGBT, men, politics

Kiss Me Softly (Kus me zachtjes) 2002

21/12/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Kiss-me-Softly-cc
 

Director:   Anthony Schatteman

Writer:   Anthony Schatteman

Stars:   Ezra Fieremans, Tim Bogaerts, Marijke Pinoy

Another welcome short movie, this one is from 2002 and is about 17 year old Jasper who cannot be himself in his family.  His father, Lukkie Luk, is a singer and he draws in all the attention within the family to himself, and Jasper is left almost in limbo trying to find ways of handling this whilst also trying to find answer to the typical questions of a teenager growing through adolescence.

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Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With: adolescence, gay, growing up, underage

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