Good morning, proud people! Tis the season, and we’re all praying to the weather godess, Jean Byrne, that the rain stays away this Saturday. For that is when the Ireland’s first Pride parade of the year kicks off in Dublin! Have you all got your best outfits prepped? Have you accessorised your pets? Do you have a reliable rainbow umbrella to hand? Have you ironed your pride flag?

It’s all so exciting!

So, today’s Suppa is a seasonal affair. To find out what’s happening for Dublin and nationwide Pride, take a peek at our what’s on calendar – it’s heaving! Dublin Pride’s programme can be downloaded from the official website, and copies are available from select bars and cafes around the city centre.

So what’s been happening?

Send us your Pride Pics!

We’re asking readers to send in your photos of Pride flags between now and September when the final Pride takes place in Ireland.

These can be actual flags, or cars/people/jelly babies/accessories/pets (within reason) – or whatever Pride-themed, rainbow coloured objects that you spy. The more the merrier. (And if you can snap them near a local landmark, all the better!)

So get them to us by email, twitter, or via facebook – whichever is easiest!

So far, the Pride Pics have included: An adorable pooch in a rainbow doggy cover at the inaugural Dublin Pride Run; A Dublin Bus shelter on Parkgate Street getting into the Pride spirit; A proudly yarn-bombed Galway Hooker statue; and a lovely image of a CRT computer monitor vomiting a rainbow. It seemed apt.

And there are more to come!

Fair City’s Laura & Emily

You may have been reading the recaps of last week’s episodes of that Irish institution, Fair City.

Yes! That’s right! Fair City have a sapphic storyline (and not for the first time).

It seems the lesbians will be not quite so hot ‘n’ bothered this week (thanks a bunch, scriptwriters), but watch this space for updates! Will there be more rattling off queer film titles? Casually including lesbian lingo while flirting at the Carrigstown’s local? Sure, who’s to say?!

Irish athletes at Eurogames 2012

The annual Eurogames sporting bonanza takes place this year in Budapest, Hungary.

Among the Irish representatives heading over to the event which kicks off today are the Phoenix Tigers footballers.

The Phoenix Tigers were established in June 2004 by a group of gay women to promote playing soccer among the lesbian and female bisexual community of Dublin and the surrounding areas. It’s queer women, getting fit, meeting new people and having lots of fun!

We hope to catch up with the Tigers when they return to Dublin, to find out about how they got on – so stay tuned!

Ireland’s first out mayor is elected

Also just in time for Pride, Ireland’s first out mayor has been elected to office.

Fingal County Council elected Labour councillor, Cian O’Callaghan, as Cathaoirleach of the local authority on Friday last.

O’Callaghan first became a councillor at Fingal County Council in 2009. He joins the likes of Senators David Norris and Katherine Zappone, and TDs Dominic Hannigan, John Lyons and Jerry Buttimer – who are among Ireland’s out LGBT politicians.

Louise Hannon of the Labour LGBT group said:

We are delighted to be celebrating and marking Dublin’s pride festival with this important milestone.

She continued:

Labour LGBT has strongly supported the election of openly gay elected representatives. Today’s vote is a step forward for the LGBT community.

She added that O’Callaghan is a “talented young politician with a long record of progressive activism on many issues”.

Good man, Cian!

Belong To at New York Pride

Michael Barron and Belong To crew were at the Irish Consulate in New York last weekend.

With the Consul General Noel Kilkenny in the audience, along with Dominic Hannigan TD, Michael spoke at the BeLonG To’s New York Pride event at the weekend, before joining the Craicfest at the Irish Arts Center where they showed BeLonG To short films.

If all that wasn’t enough, on Sunday, they headed out to join the New York Pride march in Manhattan.

You can get extra jealous by checking out oodles of photos of the Belong To crew on their facebook page.

New Arsenal signing appears on cover of gay magazine

A strapping young chappy by the name of Olivier Giroud promises to be a new addition to Arsenal football club – and he has appeared on the cover of a gay magazine.

(Sorry, fella fanciers: he’s straight.)

The popular Arseblog brings us the news that The Mirror ran a story at the weekend about how Giroud posed for the cover of a Tetu magazine in France.

The footballer told Tetu:

I would be delighted if my ­gesture can help change the mentality of some people ­involved in football.

Arseblog also pointed out that The Mirror had changed its online edition overnight: the story originally suggested that there could be “trouble on the terraces” and that Giroud could be a target for opposition fans because of it.

The Mirror stated:

Olivier Giroud has set himself up as a target for rival fans, by posing provocatively for a gay magzine in France…

Acknowledging the endemic homophobia in football, the blog went on to describe the tabloid’s angle as “sad and utterly pathetic”.

Not only that, but the commenters on The Mirror’s own website were mind-bogglingly enlightened and basically slammed both the original and reviewed versions of the story.

It may not seem like it, but that’s fairly feckin’ radical (for football). Maybe there’s hope for gay footballers yet?

But things aren’t all rosy in the garden – which is why Pride and solidarity at home and abroad are as important as ever.

Not only do we still need to make progress for full equality in Ireland, but the situation is dangerous for many LGBT people around the world:

UK anti-equality campaign

Across the water, conservative forces are amassing against equality.

Some MPs and bishops have aligned as “the Keep Marriage Special campaign” to oppose the UK government’s plans for marriage equality.

According to The Guardian, they have claimed that the argument for gay marriage would also legalise incest and polygamy, claim bishops and MPs

One of the lobby group’s leaflets claimed that the logical argument for reforming the law would be equally applicable to the legalisation of incest and polygamy.

It claims:

If the only basis for marriage is the desire of the parties to get married then there is, according to the logic of this proposal, no reason not to open up marriage to more than just same-sex couples. Polygamy, polyandry and incest would all be permissible.

If that wasn’t bizarre enough, the leaflet adds:

The immigration service is already swamped with false marriages – this would only add to their problems.

Er.. What?? Keep talkin’, crazies. You’re doing wonders for the cause of equality.

Events across Europe

While Pride events take place across Europe, rights organisation, ILGA Europe, has been using its Facebook page to document developments in the region affecting LGBT people.

With a few exceptions, the picture it paints is bleak.

• In Bulgaria, the capital’s Pride organisers have had to ask the church there to stop calling for violence. Activists asked that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church distance itself from recent calls for violence against the parade. Earlier in June, an Orthodox priest said that “stones should be thrown” at the Parade’s participants.

• In Lithuania, a constitutional amendment to redefine the family in terms of marriage and parenthood, and to ban promotion of homosexual relations, was narrowly avoided.

• Last week, a leading gay rights activist in the Ukrainian capital was hospitalised after an assault. Taras Karasiychuk, of the organisation Gay Forum, said that he sustained a concussion and a fractured jaw during the attack by a group of unidentified assailants, who screamed homophobic insults at him. It is the second known serious assault on an LGBT person in Ukraine to have taken place over the past month.

• Worryingly echoing Ireland’s equality laws, a court in Germany has ruled that the German Catholic Church is entitled to fire the head of a kindergarten because she is a lesbian.

• Speaking of Germany, in Greece police had to intervene when a Pride parade in the north of the country came under attack. Police say about 50 people threw eggs and plastic bottles of water at about 400 people holding a gay pride parade in the city of Thessaloniki. No injuries were reported.

Egypt’s statement to the UN

Meanwhile during a discussion about human rights at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last Thursday, an Egyptian delegation urged the body to focus its efforts on “real people” who need assistance when the issue of the LGBT community arose.

The statement included:

Finally, concerning the highly controversial notion of sexual orientation, we can only reiterate that it is not part of the universally recognized human rights.

It continued:

We call on [the UN] not to undermine the credibility and legitimacy of [its] important work in the eyes of real people who actually need it, especially in regions where such concepts are rejected by both its Christian and Muslim inhabitants like the Middle East.

This isn’t the first time that a UN meeting to discuss human rights has heard such deeply homophobic statements. In March, a group of Islamic and other nations staged a walk-out during a historic meeting to discuss the human rights issues affecting LGBT people around the world, and launch a landmark report.

Still, neither the March walkout or last week’s hateful statement managed to derail proceedings. You can’t stop progress!