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01 May 2013
Tonight Pantibar hosts one of Dublin Pride's "pre-Pride" events, Pride Unplugged.
"Pride Unplugged is an opportunity for new and established talent to perform for a live audience in a relaxed friendly atmosphere. It is also an opportunity for acts hoping to perform on the mainstage of pride to showcase themselves
This event is open to singers, bands and musicians."
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04 Mar 2013
Pantibar is the venue for a Pride fundraiser this Wednesday with all proceeds going towards this year's Pride festival in June.
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01 Mar 2013
A number of online and print media today carried photos from a press call to publicise 2FM's sponsorship of this year's Dublin Pride. The pictures fall roughly into one of the few usual templates for Irish press calls: a famous face, a glamour girl, someone painted in body paint. If they'd thrown in a giant flower and shot it in Stephe's Green they have covered the lot!
However, while 2FM's sponsorship of Pride has generally been welcomed, the photoshoot has not pleased everybody. I heard some grumbles myself earlier today, and now the editor of GCN has weighed in and a lively online discussion is taking place in the comments.
pride
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10 Aug 2012
Uganda is one of the very worst places in the world to be gay (this is the country of the proposed "kill the gays bill") and yet a first Pride parade was well attended by incredibly brave men and women, and was apparently a success - and even fun - despite harassment and arrests from police.
Read more about it HERE, HERE, and HERE.
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03 Aug 2012
Below is the speech I gave at Pride last month as Grand Marshal. I rarely write my speeches out in full and this was no exception - I generally prefer to speak slightly more loosely from bullet points, knowing where I'm going but with room to manouver! But I was asked after Pride for the text of the speech so I went back and fleshed it out as close as I could remember to how I had delivered it. Though I always think these things read so oddly because of course it was written to be spoken not read, and when reading it I sometimes think it's hard to separate the silly asides from the real meat! The emphasis is somewhat lost.
Oh and apologies to whoever owns this pic that I'm using and not crediting, but I can't remember where I came across it now. I'm a forgetful old bird. It's a cute pic though.
Happy Pride!
When the Pride committee first called me and asked me
to be Grand Marshall of this year's parade, I first made
sure they had the right number. I am a little posh and at
first I was afraid they might have confused me with David
Norris. But after they assured me there was no mistake, I
was delighted to accept.
I was delighted to accept because it's an honour to get
to lead the parade through the city - especially after
all the previous impressive Grand Marshalls. And in
particular this year as the parade made it's way to what
will hopefully become it's new home here at Merrion
Square. But mostly I was also delighted to accept because
I love Pride.
And that is not always a fashionable opinion. You will
often hear people complaining about Pride. Some people,
even in our community, go so far as to suggest the parade
damages our cause, and wonder do we even still need
Pride?
And I say "YES!" we still need Pride. For many of us,
especially those of us that live ihere in the city, it can
be very easy to live in a comfortable gay bubble. We
hang out with our gay friends, and with our "cool" straight
friends, we shop in shops that want our gay euros, and eat
in restaurants that welcome us and our gay euros.
But it doesn't take much to scratch that comfortable gay
bubble: a car window rolled down at 2am on Georges
Street and someone shouts "faggot!". And you don't have
to venture far into the internet to find ignorance and hate
directed at us. Indeed you don't have to go far from this
very spot, just a few yards to the Seanad chamber, to
occasionally hear us described with distain by eminent
men.
Of course, when people say that the parade damages our
cause, or doesn't represent them, what they really mean is
that they don't like the "freaks" on the parade. They don't
like the drag queens and the transgenders or the dykes on
bikes or the boys in speedos.
Well, fine! Have your own parade then and see how much
fun it is! Because I have no interest in being part of a
community that would seek to divide us into acceptable
gays and unacceptable gays. Because there is no such
thing as unacceptable gays - there are only exceptional
gays!
They want us to march quietly and politely in suits
asking "please" for equality while not frightening the
horses. And indeed calm, reasoned discussion has it's
place, but sometimes the most persuasive and effective
argument for equality isn't obsequiousness - it's living!
Living an open, joyous and unashamed life.
And nothing is more joyous and unashamed than a Pride
parade. And do not underestimate the power of visibility,
nor dismiss the power of fun.
It's easy to hate an abstract. It's easy to dismiss people
you only hear about on the telly. Easy to discriminate
against these people the Pope describes as "disordered".
But it's had to hate your neighbour - that takes real effort.
And it's hard to dismiss the people you saw having such
fun on O'Connell St today when you came out of Cleary's.
Just look at the faces of the old ladies on the footpath
today as we came by, swept up in our joy!
Because we have a weapon much more powerful than the
hate and ignorance sometimes wielded against us. We
have gay joy!
And our joy trumps hate - every time.
Our delight trumps insult - every time.
Our righteousness trumps injury - every time!
But the parade also serves another purpose. It doesn't
just remind the wider community that we are here, that we
exist, and that we exist in great numbers - it reminds us!
We remind ourselves of our numbers, of our vibrancy, our
diversity, our community, and our power. It reinvigorates
us for another year.
And anyway, complaining about a gay parade seems to
me to be a futile exercise, because all parades are gay! A
heterosexual parade is just an organised walk!
Another lovely thing about the parade is that it welcomes
new members to our community. I love to see the delight
of young gay people on their first parade. Their surprise
at the amount of other gay people. (I was reminded of
my own first Pride when I walked into the Front Lounge
last night. I had no idea there were so many lesbians in
Dublin!)
Before I finish, I'd like to say a few words to the young
people here today.
First of all... I love what you're wearing. You look great!
But I also want to say that I love you. And I envy you!
You are so confident! So sure of who you are at such a
young age. So sure of all the possibilities of life. And that's
wonderful.
When I was your age I wasn't anywhere near so confident.
I grew up before there were LGBT on every television
programme, before Graham Norton, before Will & Grace.
I grew up before the internet. And I was desperate to
see myself reflected, anywhere! Simply finding other gay
people was a task worthy of Jessica Fletcher! My parents
had a book about the human animal and in it was a
section on sex and sexuality and I remember reading and
re-reading the small section on homosexuality because
here was real proof that these mythical gay people existed
and weren't just the invented objects of school yard scorn.
Because I was so desperate to see myself reflected
anywhere, I devoured anything I could find about gay
people and the gay community I would one day be part of.
I learned about the Stonewall riots, and read biographies
of Judy Garland and gained a sense of where I'd come
from. Not out of some lofty desire to educate myself, but
out of a loneliness.
Thankfully, it's not like that for young people like you
anymore. You have the world at your fingertips. And that's
a wonderful thing. However, like most things in life, even
the good things come with a downside.
The downside is that you don't know your history. And
your history is important. You can't know where you are
going till you know where you came from.
So if today inspires you to do one thing, make it this.
Learn your history. Know yourself.
Google "Stonewall". Google the name "Declan Flynn", the
young man whose brutal murder in Fairview Park in 1982
(and the offensively inadequate response of this state to
his murder) sparked the anger that led to the first Dublin
Pride march.
And finally let me just say to everyone here - thank you!
Thank you for being so magnificently gay, and thank you
for a wonderful day. Happy Pride!
pride
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panti
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10 Jul 2012
This is a fun clip by Will St Leger (thanks Will!). We were literally the very first thing on the parade this year which meant the pavements were a little quieter than usual as we passed - because people only really come out to watch the parade when they hear it. But you can see in some of the shots how huge the crown behind us was. You can't even see the next float there are so many people between us and them.
My favourite part is at the end of the clip. When we reached Merrion Square, the people on foot were directed into the square while the floats were directed in a different direction to park around on the other side of the square. So we sped off and kind of had our own private parade, blasting out the music and having an impromptu disco on our float all on our own where we parked on the other side of the park. Oh we LOL-ed!
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06 Jul 2012
Quite a lot of people bought the official line that the Commissioner's insistence that the Gardaí not wear their uniforms in the Pride parade wasn't homophobic because it's standard policy that off duty gardaí aren't allowed wear their uniforms. As I said before, I didn't go along with that for a moment. And I see today that Senator David Norris called bullshit on it in the Seanad on Tuesday:
(via Maman Poulet)
"I attended the opening at Dublin Castle and listened to the addresses given by the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Garda Commissioner. I spoke at the dinner hosted by the European Gay Police Association, a very important meeting attended by some 300 members of police forces from 26 countries spanning three continents. When members of this group visited Áras an Uachtaráin, an attempt was made by the Garda Commissioner to prevent the gardaí involved from wearing their uniforms. This was only overcome after a second meeting involving the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors. That is very strange.
"At the conference we were told that one of the problems was the way in which the grapevine was used by members of the Garda. The Commissioner succeeded in his efforts to prevent Irish officers from wearing their uniforms at the parade on the basis that they would be off duty. However, being off duty is no impediment to the wearing of uniforms by gardaí participating in the homophobic event that is the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in New York. Likewise, no objections were raised when off-duty gardaí escorting the remains of St. Thérèse of Lisieux wore their uniforms. When it is a gay issue, however, gardaí, alone among the police force representatives of 26 countries, are apparently not allowed to wear their uniform. These gardaí are facing discrimination in their own country.
"Will the Leader confirm whether, as I understand it, the Garda Commissioner also attempted to prevent the foreign representatives from wearing their uniforms in the parade? Second, in the light of the grapevine situation, which is highlighted by a brilliant academic paper by two women from DCU, is it the case that a verbal message was sent by the Commissioner's office to all assistant commissioners advising them not to attend the conference and, moreover, to advise their chief superintendents and superintendents that they would be better employed in their own divisions and districts? It is a fact that no assistant commissioners attended the conference, nor any operational chief superintendents or superintendents. These are very serious questions and I ask that they be answered factually and on the record of this House rather than sub rosa."
A lot of people also tried to say that if they were allowed to wear their uniforms in the Pride parade, then what was to stop them wearing their uniforms in say, a Youth Defence protest. However that is a false analogy. I wouldn't argue that police officers should be allowed wear their uniforms and walk behind a political banner in Pride. For example, I don't think they should be allowed walk in uniform with a group calling for marriage equality. Officers need to stay out of politics. However, being gay is perfectly legal in this country so walking in the parade is not in itself political. It is simply a statement of identy, and I would also support say the Chinese-Irish officers being allowed to wear their uniforms in a Chinese New Year parade. And is anyone honestly going to argue that a member of say, Opus Dei, would be less likely to call the police after a burgulary because they saw some gay gardai in the parade? Though I think some gay people certainly would be more likely to contact the Gardai after a gay bashing having seen them at Pride.
Indeed the Commissioner should be encouraging participation in the parade! Gay people have good reason to be somewhat distrustful of the Gardaí whose record is not unblemeshed when it comes to dealing with the gay community. The Gardaí should be taking every opportunity to engage with the gay community - and other communities. They are supposed to be a community police force and should engage with those communities.
There are gay officers. Being open about that is good for the Gardaí and good for policing.
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04 Jul 2012
Some fella called Rory (ahem!) spoke to WorldIrish.com about all things Irish and gay.
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03 Jul 2012
Sex between males is still a criminal offence in very conservative Singapore, but the law is generally not enforced. However, they don't have a Pride march like we do. Instead, they gather for an annual "Pink Dot", which this year took place last Saturday - the same day we were celebrating our Pride. LGBT people and their allies gather to form a big pink dot in a park and enjoy some entertainment. This year, for the first time they gathered in the evening to form a glittering, candle-lit night-time pink dot.
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02 Jul 2012
Article HERE.
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