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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

 

 

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.

 

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