ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

LGBTQI+ Library

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Quite a while ago the library for our community was moved from the Carpenter Centre to Cathedral Buildings in Lower Donegall Street.  I was completing some research on the LGBT Film Festival (more to follow on this) when I spotted the following entry:

 

Library…Library

The library at ‘No 8’ has several hundred books ranging from bubble-gum to high art and heavy social science tomes.  One hundred books, mostly quite serious stuff went missing in the move from ‘No 4’ if you know anything of the whereabouts of this material, please let us know.

The Library also contains a full run of the old “Gay News”, “Gay Star” and its predecessors, nearly full runs of the Gay magazines and some unique stuff like dissertations and theses on various groups and individuals in the gay movement locally.

The NIGRA Archives containing information on the Strasbourg case and the McCleave affair, as well as ten years of press clippings, are not held at ‘No 8’ but can be reached by way of the librarian, Terry…

 

 

Of interest now is that to my knowledge the missing material and books never materialised, also the following items are held in the following locations:

  • Gay News in the Linen Hall Library, 17 Donegall Square N, Belfast BT1 5GB – go to the fourth floor and ask to see them
  • Gay Star, upstart, update, NIGRA News are also held in the Linen Hall Library, 17 Donegall Square N, Belfast BT1 5GB – go to the fourth floor and ask to see them
  • Press Clippings (a lot more than 10 years) are held in PRONI, 2 Titanic Boulevard Titanic Quarter, Belfast BT3 9HQ
  • NIGRA Archives etc also held in 
  • PRONI, 2 Titanic Boulevard Titanic Quarter, Belfast BT3 9HQ

Library

 

Links:

 

 

“Family Escapes Birmingham Gay Village Attack, Seeks Refuge in Ireland”

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"Family Escapes Birmingham Gay Village Attack, Seeks Refuge in Ireland"

Stop Homophobia

A family has fled to Ireland following a distressing attack that occurred in Birmingham’s gay village. The incident involved a violent assault on the father, who was targeted for his sexual orientation. The family shared their experience, describing the trauma and fear they endured as a result of the attack, which has led them to seek safety in a new country. Their story highlights the ongoing issues of homophobia and violence against LGBTQ+ individuals, as well as the challenges faced by those seeking refuge. The family hopes to rebuild their lives in Ireland, where they can find a more accepting environment.

 

Airbrushing out of history

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Airbrushing out of historyEarlier this year [2023] I was fortunate to come across an article by Lois Beckett on how the streets of Los Angeles, which played host to many events in LGBTQ+ history, are being gentrified, and these are my words, the LGBTQ+ community is being airbrushed out of the areas.

So why should this matter?  Well, there is an adage often repeated, “if we have no history, we don’t exist”.  Lewis was accompanied on this journey by Roland Palencia, a gay activist who has lived and organised in the area for decades.  Palencia suddenly shouted “Where is the plaque?  The plaque was right here!”  The plaque did commemorate the Mattachine Society (one of the first ‘US’ homophile groups to openly advocate acceptance.)Airbrushing out of history

“It’s erasure.  Erasure of our history,” Palencia says, “This is where it all began, at least in modern times.”

The journey carried on, and more and more items of importance in relation to the LGBTQ+ society had been removed or hidden due to the gentrification of the area.

Airbrushing out of history

When Hitler came to power, he sought to eradicate any group(s) who did not conform to his ideal of purity and history.  Today in the USA (and other countries) they first try to eradicate our history by the removal of LGBTQ+ books from schools, libraries etc.  It also shows often in local towns and villages but the fact that local LGBTQ+ people are not recognised for their contribution to society.

This practice is being adopted piecemeal in certain schools and is expanding to plays with gay characters not being allowed to be produced in schools and colleges.

The Conservative government has to be continuously dragged to court(s) or harangued in the media (if they publish) to get LGBTQ+ legislation on the statute books (we are still waiting for the promised transgender updates) including the promised law changes for conversion therapy.  History shows that Conversion Therapy (CT) was used from the late 19th century because psychiatrists and doctors had begun to label same-sex desire in medical terms—and then started looking for ways to reverse it.

Airbrushing out of historyThe damage that Conversion Therapy causes is well documented so what I wonder is this government’s problem?  Indeed, we continuously get paid lip service with notes of apologies because it happened – just look at the apology regarding Alan Turing.

[Please note that in this editor’s opinion, ‘apologies are only a mark in history, they don’t remove the stain or embarrassment or pain that occurred, or indeed prevent the same mistake(s) from being done again’].

The LGBTQ+ community, I believe, is not looking for special treatment; what it is looking for is parity with all elements of society.

Don’t let us become another airbrushing out of history statistic!

Airbrushed out of history

 

Research and Links

Have you got a history to tell us about?

If you have a history to tell us about for our community, then please contact us (ACOMSDave) by comment or using our contact form or by getting in touch with https://lgbthistoryni.com/

WHAT DON’T WE KNOW ABOUT LGBTQ+ HOMELESSNESS

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(AND HOW YOU CAN HELP US ADDRESS THAT)

 

WHAT DON’T WE KNOW ABOUT LGBTQ+ HOMELESSNESSAccording to Dr Edith England (Cardiff Metropolitan University) and Dr. Neil Turbull (Cardiff University), WHAT DON’T WE KNOW ABOUT LGBTQ+ HOMELESSNESS,  is over and under-researched.   There has been a lot of research carried out on young people (especially those living in areas with high LGBTQ+ populations), but little or no research has been carried out for others, e.g.

  • those over 25
  • rural LGBTQ+ people
  • those disengaged from or avoiding services

To try to gauge just how bad (or good) the reality is, the survey being conducted will look at:

  • What percentage of the LGBTQ+ population has experienced homelessness
  • How homelessness, and experiences of homelessness, differ within the LGBTQ+ population
  • How LGBTQ+ homelessness is different in different areas across the country
  • What LGBTQ+ people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness want and need
  • What happens after LGBTQ+ people experience homelessness

 

What can you do to help?

The LGBTQ+ community need a baseline, and with this survey, Dr Edith England and Dr. Neil Turbull, hope to fill the gaps in the areas indicated above.  They believe that establishing answers to these fundamental questions will benefit all researchers in this area, and even help towards emboldening government policy.

The survey takes around 10 minutes to complete and asks questions about demographics, housing and homelessness experiences through the lifetime, and service needs.  If you are aged 18+, UK resident and LGBTQ+, please complete the survey.

 

 

Links

The History of LGBT (now LGBTQ+) in Northern Ireland

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The History of LGBT (now LGBTQ+) in Northern Ireland

Our Pride 1991 – by Terry McFarlane

 

 

The history of the LGBT (now LGBTQ+) in N Ireland is layered with groups that started to pursue a particular ideal missing from the community at the time.

 

 

 

Groups such as:

  • NIGRA
  • Cara Friend
  • COSO
  • GLYNI
  • Belfast Butterfly Group
  • Queerspace
  • Rainbow Project

Out of these groups came various local publications, e.g.

  • Gay Star
  • upstart
  • Update
  • NIGRA News
  • Gay Community News

The History of LGBT (now LGBTQ+) in Northern Ireland

 

But we also provided meeting spaces for individuals and groups, and the development of our own local lending library in the Carpenter Centre, Long Lane, Belfast.  This library held:

  • Books (both fiction and non-fiction)
  • Magazines

o   Foreign:

      • The Advocate (USA)
      • Christopher Street (USA)
      • Curve (USA)
      • Physique Magazine (USA) – a few copies
      • Zipper (*****)
      • Gai pied (French)
      • Lambda (Italian)
      • De Gayt Krant (Dutch)

o   Great Britain

      • Boyz
      • The Quorum
      • ScotsGay
      • Pink News
      • Gay Times
      • Gay News
      • Attitude
      • Diva
      • Fyne Times

o   Posters (both local and from abroad)

o   Banners (for various organisations)

o   Placards

 

NIGRA Banner at Pride

It was in a lot of ways our history repository.

The History of LGBT (now LGBTQ+) in Northern Ireland

Unfortunately, when we had to move to the Cathedral Buildings due to redevelopment, a lot of our history was lost, but still some of has found its way to.

 

  • The Ulster Museum – https://www.ulstermuseum.org/
  • The Linen Hall Library – https://www.linenhall.com/
  • PRONI – https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni

For people to access and learn about our history.

We need to develop spaces for writers, artists, and musicians within our community.  Yes, we need those spaces for well-being, befriending etc., but why have we limited ourselves?

I was thinking about when I first realised, I was gay, and how access to books and magazines seemed to be so restrictive.  But, after careful consideration what I have realised was that in terms of today, we had many more venues in which we could get a book or a magazine.  We had at least eight different bookstores we could visit, and then there were the various corner stores and bars that welcomed LGBT clientele (some grudgingly) but also stocked the various free gay magazines and papers. An enticement no doubt to bring people in, but at least they were there.

Today, we are a larger more supportive society, but, though we have the internet, Amazon, online magazines (which we mostly have to pay for) and a quarterly printed magazine (Attitude) available in some selected outlets (or by post), we seem to have less well written and researched news, less knowledge about the books that are available or the movies that are coming out (unless they are blockbusters).

We are also getting to that time in history when people who fought and made our history are reaching the end of their life.  Often without their history being noted, recorded, and save for our future.  Once they die, there is no way of returning that historical knowledge.

We have in part a way of saving our history, which is the LGBTHISTORYNI online archive site, but our community needs to get behind it, get involved with it and start telling everyone about our history.

 

 

Links:

 

 

Go to LGBTHistoryNI

Visit LGBTHistoryNI and get involved in recording our history

Go NOW

 

 

LGBTQ+ Library Survey

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LGBTQ+ Library SurveyLGBTQ+ Survey – Over the last 30+ years, I have written for various magazines and organisations, and I have been an active member of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association,  and whilst based in Surrey was active in CHE.

Prior to the pandemic, I had been trying to find out how libraries across the United Kingdom had been responding to the LGBTQ+ community, but with little success.  

This is not my first time trying to gain an understanding of what is happening in our libraries for the LGBTQ+ community; whilst I was based in Surrey, England I was totally surprised over what can occur during a four year period.  When I first arrived in Sutton, a town 14 miles from Central London, and in the heart of natural conservatism, stocked the Pink Paper, Capital Gay and Gay Times (all of which are no longer in production or print-based magazines).  They also had a ‘few’ gay books on the shelves in the social studies section.  these items slowly disappeared because according to the librarians ‘some users abused the facilities i.e. they kept moving or hiding the items.

Just as everything seemed to go into limbo, Sutton Libraries got a new assistant librarian.  IN the two years following my initial survey, she provided the LGBTQ+ community with an alternative book show, including a display from Gay’s the Word, free copies of gay papers openly available on a shelf for anyone who wanted one, and also a Gay & Lesbian section in the main library with over 120 items including videos.

To find out what our current situation is after the pandemic I have created a short survey online and I am asking any individual or group to go and check it out and complete it in relation to their location.

I hope you will all take part and look forward to pulling together the survey results and publishing them.  LGBTQ+ Library Survey

 

LGBTQ+ Library Survey

LGBTQ+ Library Survey

 

 

Links:

Far Right

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The ‘faFar Rightr right’ continue to use whatever methods work for them, and there is little reason to believe that an appeal on moralistic grounds will work, remember, they believe they are on the moral high ground. If we need to beat them then we need to adopt strong tactics within the law, but we have to be as smart if not smarter than them.

‘Conservative Candidates Promoted Petitions That Sent Personal Data to European Far-Right Group’

In an article by Philip Baldwin, in the Gay Times [now no longer a print-based magazine, I am sorry to say] he said that

…the British Government is increasingly moving towards an agenda which, in his view, is profoundly lesbophobic, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic…

[Are LGBTQ+ people under siege in the UK?] (dated 

Then we have William Koenig who claimed that the LGBTQ people are prepping children to be”groomed and sexualized” and that COVID is God’s “judgement” for U.S. being “so pro-LGBT”

You, no matter where you turn you can see what appears to be a backlash against the LGBTQ+ community and the affirmation of our rights. 

Tonight EMMA POWYS MAURICE , has reported in the Pink Paper ‘ Police are investigating after three people were reportedly whipped with belts by a group of men in a suspected homophobic attack.‘, and before this ‘The Independent‘ reported that attacks on LGBT people have surged by almost an 80% increase in the UK over last four years.

For so many in the LGBTQ+ community we have been living through what appears to have been an enlighten ‘rosy’ period; we have been legally recognised [though at different times in the various parts of the UK], different sectors have recognised us within the working world [i.e Gay and lesbian citizens have been allowed to serve openly in the Her Majesty’s Armed Forces since 2000], same-sex marriage has been recognised and performed in England and Wales since March 2014, in Scotland since December 2014, and in Northern Ireland since January 2020.

And because of these wins, we in the LGBTQ+ community have become complacent.  We go on our Pride Parades, and forget that these were originally Marches to fight for our rights!  IN the past we also had local magazines and Gay News was a fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), this ran until 1983.

We don’t have these resources anymore, we depend on social media outlets, but remember in the main these are written by ordinary people and not journalists.  It also means that we are limited often in the in-depth research articles that we need.

Protection of our community is down to you the community, you need to report things of consequence to our community, to take a stance against things that are wrong (and let others know about your stance), and lastly, yes enjoy Gay Pride when it comes around, but remember this is to show everyone that we are not going away and that we have a right live as equal people.

 

Links:

 

 

 

Olympic Medals and Population

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So the Tokyo Olympics are over and the medals are coming home, and yes there will be disappointments, but it is a big but, every one of those athletes went and represented their country to the very best of their ability.  And yes, if we just look at medals, as one newscaster did when he stated that the United Kingdom had done as well as in Rio or London (a  statement now proven to be at least half incorrect).   The United Kingdom has achieved more than London and only slightly less than Rio – an absolutely brilliant result when considering the pandemic’s impact and comparing Olympic medals against the population.

It is very easy to forget that the United Kingdom is fifth in population size in the top ten medal winners, which means that for every 1m people in the population our Olympians achieved a medal.  This is absolutely stupendous when you compare that again People’s Republic of China (1 med per 16.4m), the USA (1 medal per 2.9m) or the ROC (1 medal per 2m).

It is estimated that at least 182 ‘out athletes’ from about 30 countries attended the Tokyo Games. 

…At least 55 of those athletes, who competed in 35 different sports, won medals — five nabbed gold for Team USA women’s basketball alone. In fact, if the LGBTQ Olympians competed as their own country — affectionately labeled “Team LGBTQ” by Outsports — they would rank 11th in the total medal count (right behind France and before Canada), with 32 team and individual medals: 11 gold, 12 silver and nine bronze…NBC News

Our Olympians are marvellous. and wouldn’t it be wonderful if the media realised this for more than just the two weeks of the Olympic Games!

 

Olympic Medals and Population

 

 

  Top 10 Countires Olympic Medals 2021 with Population  
Rank Team/NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank by Total Population Total  
1 United States of America 39 41 33 113 1 332.9 million  
2 People’s Republic of China 38 32 18 88 2 1444.2 million  
3 Japan 27 14 17 58 5 126 million  
4 Great Britain 22 21 22 65 4 68.2 million  
5 ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) 20 28 23 71 3 144.2 million  
6 Australia 17 7 22 46 6 25.8 million  
7 Netherlands 10 12 14 36 9 17.1 million  
8 France 10 12 11 33 10 65.4 million  
9 Germany 10 11 16 37 8 83.9 million  
10 Italy 10 10 20 40 7 60.3 million  

 

Links:

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’

Links:

 

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