Tag Archives: Gay

The DUP [health] minister [Edwin Poots} has said his controversial decision – to deny gay men the opportunity to donate blood – is based on two pieces of evidence — a letter from the Minister for Health in the Republic and a document on the issue by the European Department for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQMH).

The letter from Dr James Reilly TD (above)  sent to Mr Poots at the end of May said that the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood exists in Ireland “is based not only on risk factors for HIV but on other blood borne agents known to be associated with MSM (men who have sex with men) behaviour”.

 

Anyone?

Student body calls on minister Poots to go over gay blood donor ban (Lisa Smyth, Belfast telegraph)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

Thanks Mark Malone

The ruling General Synod voted to pass a controversial motion that “faithfulness within marriage is the only normative context for sexual intercourse”.

Gerry Lynch, of Changing Attitudes Ireland and a member of St George’s Church in Belfast, said: “Nobody says that my love life is not ‘normative’ when the collection plate is passed round, or when I come in on a Saturday to get the church ready for Sunday, or spend time with distressed people who often turn up at a city centre church.
“The General Synod vote confirmed many gay people’s experience of the churches as the last bastion of homophobia.”

Church Of Ireland Synod Blasted For ‘Homophobia’ After Vote On Marriage (Belfast Telegraph)

Previously: Old Testimony

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Let me just put this in a personal context for a moment. All of my life I have watched gay people be passed over for promotion, be written out of wills, be un-invited to weddings, funerals and family gatherings. I have seen them insulted, spat at, physically attacked and treated like garbage. I have seen parents, brothers and sisters bait them, belittle them, physically injure them, or turn their backs on them, then throw them out of doors forever in Ireland, Europe and the United States.
And I have seen the brutal toll of all that shaming and rejection lead some of them to ruin. Some of the kindest, most beautiful souls I have known are dead now because of that daily avalanche of hatred and ignorance. And all because they loved the wrong person. Nothing is more shocking to me than that.

 

As A Gay Irish Man Obama’s Support On Same Sex Marriage means Everything (Cahir O’Doherty, Irish Central)

Earlier: Obama’s greatest Moment

Jerry Buttimer (above with Lucinda Creighton) has become Fine Gael’s first TD to come out after the party launched a new forum to push for gay equality. The Cork deputy said the creation of the group for FG representatives and activists was the appropriate moment to speak about his private life. “I am a TD who just happens to be gay — it is one little composition of the story that is me, and I will continue to be the politician I was yesterday,” he said.

Buttimer: I Am A TD Who Also Just Happens To Be Gay (Shaun Connolly, Irish Examiner)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

So you’re a young gay schoolkid.

And then this happens:

The Roman Catholic church has written to every state-funded Catholic secondary school in England and Wales asking them to encourage pupils to sign a petition against gay marriage. Students at one school in south London were shown a presentation on religious opposition to the government’s plans to let gay couples marry in civil ceremonies.

Catholic Church Urges Pupils To Sign Anti-gay Marriage Petition (The Guardian)

A more aggressive campaign among youngsters in the US has led to a number of teen suicides, documented in this heart-wrenching Rolling Stone article from February.