International Human Rights Day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the key architects of the Declaration was the feminist and humanitarian, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Ready your dancing shoes (and hats)! Engage your queer history brain! Get political! Get theatrical! It’s lesbian February! (Let me know in the comments anything I’ve missed.)

You will all no doubt have seen the rainbow flags all the way up and down the Liffey, and that can only mean one thing-Pride!! The Dublin LGBTQ Pride Festival is launching in The George on June 18th. Here you will find the full listings of every event being run throughout the Pride festival.

On Wednesday, HAL listed some of the positive changes for women in Ireland, following The Irish Times’ marking of 40 years of struggle with its “Sisters” special. Fittingly, then, Friday’s Irish Times letters page included a fascinating critique by one Kay Hughes.

Ah for jayses sake. This is what RTÉ comes up with as a long list for Ireland’s greatest figures. Names such as Colin Farrell, Stephen Gately, effing Louis Walsh and bloody fecking Bono. Let us know who you think should be included.

Hooray! Marching season in the north is nearly upon us, where members of a loyalist old boys’ club drag up and sashay across the region, all to honour their Dutch homosexual overlord, William of Orange. (That is what happens in the Orange Order, isn’t it?)

February 2010 sees LGBT History Month being celebrated for the first time in Ireland, at Tallaght County Library. There will be talks on LGBT literature and history, a screening of Gus Van Sant’s “Milk”, and an ongoing exhibition curated by Tonie Walsh of the Irish Queer Archive.

When one of the most important feminists, a real radical thinker with the ability to hold the world in thrall, died this week we all rightly mourned her. Mary Daly was an icon, a respected thoelogian who constructed a viable theology around what it means to be a woman. But she was a deeply flawed woman, with some questionable beliefs.

Knowing and learning about LGBT history is hugely important: Stonewall was a milestone, but not the beginning. It was an important milestone on a long journey. But what was life like for 20th century gays before 1969? “Before Stonewall” is a wide-ranging documentary which sets out to explore the answer to this question, through first-hand accounts and original footage, from a US perspective.

Every now and then it’s nice to remember the forgotten heroes, the people whose work saved many lives. People like Alan Turing can easily fade into history, but this gay mathematician played a massive part in stopping the Nazi’s in WW2 and has recently received an apology from the British Prime Minister for how he was treated when found guilty of gross indecency in 1952. It’s over due but very welcome none the less.

If you’re Irish and/or gay and you don’t know who David Norris is, well then that must be one secluded rock you’re living under. And, in light of his being honoured in San Francisco last week – including comparisons with Harvey Milk – everyone should know him! He’s gone international!

I’ve been putting off writing this. How do you sum up someone like Noel Walsh in a few words? But, it’s Irish AIDS Day so I can feel him kicking me in the arse to get it done Noel may have passed away but he continually kicks me in the arse. Some friend eh? Yep, some friend.

We met up with those heroines of the gay world, Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan, recently, for a candid chat about the inequality we still suffer. “Homosexuals are told, “That’s enough…No, no. No marriage for you, pal.” I mean, it’s unbelievable, outrageous. It’s utterly outrageous”.

The film is beautifully constructed, book-ended by Penn as Milk dictating his policital life story while sitting in his kitchen. It starts with Milk’s arrival in San Francisco, all hippy hair and gay muscles, happy and in love.

So if you had to pick 31 icons from the gay historical community who would you pick? Who could you leave out? It’s a toughy

For those who may not be familiar, Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan have taken Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners and others to the courts seeking to have their Canadian marriage recognised in this jurisdiction.

We talk to author Emma Donoghue about literature, life, lesbian and gay rights, family, and her latest projects.