This week has been one, long lesson in how misunderstood the victims of rape and sexual assault are. Just last week I wrote an article about Slut Walks and now we have the unholy trinity of Clarke, Ó Donnabháin and Strauss-Kahn. Two showed ignorance and the third showed his true side.

A few weeks ago, Constable Michael Sanguinetti a policeman in Toronto, was chatting to some students about how to stay safe. One of the things he said was; “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised”. I just checked the calendar and, yes, it’s still 2011, no strange time machine wizardry has brought us back to the dark ages.

Well, it’s been quite the lesbian weekend. Here we give a wee snapshot: Team Ireland at the Gay Games 2010 in Köln (aka Cologne); Clare Balding smacks down the Sunday Times; Darlene from Roseanne (finally) comes out. What else are we missing?!

Dr. Sonnet Ehlers hopes it will help. South African Dr. Sonnet Ehlers was on call one night four decades ago when a devastated rape victim walked in. Her eyes were lifeless; she was like a breathing corpse. “She looked at me and said, ‘If only I had teeth down there,’” recalled Ehlers, who was a [...]

I kick started a discussion on my own personal FB page yesterday about the word “frape”. For those who aren’t aware, frape is the slang term generally used for the scenario when someone uses another person’s facebook account while pretending to be that person eg if I left my laptop unattended and a friend of [...]

So, a gaggle of self-appointed defenders of the Roman Catholic faith have decided to try to halt the Civil Partnership Bill currently before the houses of the Oireachtas. Let’s just take a moment to reflect on their words to describe it: jargon such as “moral” and “immoral,” “natural law,” “care of souls.”

A couple UK studies with very disturbing results in the news yesterday. One, a study of 89 11 and 12 year-old children in several Glasgow schools, showed that in many cases, the children thought a man hitting a woman was justified if she had done something wrong. Virtually all the children thought it was acceptable [...]

MamanPoulet brings us the news that Minister Martin Cullen, as a guest speaker at a seminar on defamation, described the media intrusion he experienced over false allegations concerning Monica Leech as akin to “rape.” Apparently, he said that the media treatment he received was “like waking up every morning and being raped.” Really?

This week saw the forth annual Stonewall Awards presented to those individuals and organisations who have worked so hard to make the lives of British LGBTQ people better. Not to mention the “Bigot of the Year” award which I think is a brilliant idea. The event was star studded and it’s great to see these people celebrated, congrats to them all and to the shows organisers.

As I’m sure you all know, violence against LGBTQ people in South Africa is prominent and a real international issue for our community. Women are abused and “corrective rapes” are reported over and over in the news. It’s for this reason that I was delighted, and a little surprised, to see that a popular soap, “Rhythm City” will have a lesbian character.

The International Day against Homophobia (IDAHO) was established in 2005 to fall annually on 17th May by one Louis Georges Tin. This year, Gays.com are running a campaign in the lead-up to IDAHO, calling for anyone and everyone to submit a brief little vid of themselves. Here’s the run-down..