Last Thursday night, friend and I went along to see the Wild Oats Productions performance of The Laramie Project as part of the 7th International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF). The Laramie Project is a play documenting the murder of Matthew Shepard in October 1998.

I was at lunch in the canteen with my workmates to whom I am out and open. They are all grand and couldn’t give a monkey’s, just as it should be. However, there were three people sitting at the same long table, chatting away to each other about gays.

Next month, from 9th-18th April, sees Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week by BeLonG To, the organisation that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in Ireland. The Week aims to tackle homophobic bullying and encourage support from our straight friends and peers.

A week before ‘International Day Against Homophobia in Football’ sees the FA having to rethink their anti homophobia video due to the league’s star players snubbing the venture.
It’s more than disheartening to see the FA’s efforts at ending homophobia stilted by the players themselves.

From many quarters the accusation has been made that the story about Iris Robinson was the result of a “witch hunt” perpetrated by gay activists on account of the MP’s  vile views against homosexuals. Despite the BBC’s Spotlight programme making it plain that the story came from her former advisor, Selwyn Black, and her former [...]

Unless you’ve been under a rock (or several feet of snow) during the past week, you will be aware that Iris Robinson has been caught in a big, giant, public tangle of scandalous revelations woven by none other than herself. And I find the whole thing delicious!

You may or may not have yet heard about the BBC poll earlier this week, which asked the question, “Should homosexuals face execution?” No doubt as a result of worldwide outrage at the question, the Beeb has, of course, since quietly changed the title to “Should Uganda debate gay execution?” That’s significantly different, but the [...]

I’m hoping that you can help me out. Recently, my partner and I had one of those incidents where you think to yourself “is that because I’m gay?”. Here goes… We arrived at the Bull & Castle, a place we go to regularly, in Dublin’s Christchurch. We had a drink upstairs while waiting for a table and for our other friends to arrive. They came, we gabbed away and the four of us went down to our table. All good in the hood.

People in Mersyside attended a candlelit vigil in thier hundred to show support to a 22 year old trainee police officer who was brutally attacked by up to twenty young people on Sunday, Oct 25th.

It’s wonderful to see events like this so well supported and hopefully it will make the point that this kind of thing can not be tolerated by anyone.

For those of you who may have been living in a yurt in Outer Mongolia recently, you may not have been aware of the odious example of verbal diarrhoea penned by one Jan Moir of the Daily Fail newspaper. Identifying homophobic language for what it is is hugely important, as it’s just one point on a spectrum of hate.

Every now and again I see a story and am just so shocked and horrified that I’m lost for words. While those of us on this side of the world are trying to fight for marriage rights LGBTQ people in Uganda are being faced with a new bill that could lead to them being sentenced to death!

Sometimes I wonder if there really is an LGBTQ community. Are we really all fighting together for equality and to make stereotypes a thing of the past or do many lesbians think gay men are promiscuous hairdressers whilst some gay men think that we are lumberjacks.
I hope Graham Norton’s recent comments are not a reflection of the majority.

The news has circled the world, that two young people were shot dead yesterday, and several more were injured, in a gun attack by an unidentified man on an LGBT centre in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv, a secular city, has long been regarded as one of the most open and accepting cities in Israel, until now.

The Equality Commission of Northern Ireland has released the findings of a survey on various prejudices, it makes for sobering reading. It would appear that homophobia as well as racism and phobia of travellers are all on the rise. We can only surmise that the same can be said of the south.

I’m still seething at Brenda Power’s gobsmackingly ill-informed and homophobic ‘article’ in yesterday’s Sunday Times. How can she pass judgment (phrases like “get-up” “carry-on” ) on a Parade she didn’t attend? How can the Sunday Times see fit to publish such an unresearched article – what next? Reviews of theatre from a production shot? Reviews of concerts from hearsay?

Auntie Panti poses a question: “When the government that taxes us the same as everyone else, tells us that in return we’ll only have some of the same rights afforded to everyone else, where the fuck is the anger?”

Breda O’Brien was wittering on in Saturday’s Irish Times about Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas message to his staff being misinterpreted by all and sundry. Her comments, however, are no distraction from the vicious homophobia of the current Pope.