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Title: Out, Proud and Loud Author: Louise Tierney Date: 1994 Language: en Topics: gay pride, Ireland, Workers Solidarity Source: Retrieved on 18th November 2021 from http://struggle.ws/ws94/ws42_out.html Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No. 42 — Summer 1994.
ANARCHISTS believe that most people want to live in a society better
than the one we live in now.
The coming into effect last June of legislation which decriminalised
certain male homosexual acts was the subject of much celebration in the
gay community. The Minister who introduced the legislation, Maire
Geoghan Quinn was awarded the Magnus Hirschfield award for her
contribution to the gay community by the National Lesbian and Gay
Federation. For many it was felt the battle for equality had been won.
This was certainly the outlook in the national and international press.
Champagne flowed freely in the capital’s gay pubs and clubs.
The period since then has been virtually silent in the gay political
movement. The one exception was the Donna McAnnellan affair. Donna was
sacked from her employment in a gym in Cork because she was a lesbian.
She lost her appeal in January to the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT).
Apart from a couple of half hearted press statements from the NLGF,
publicity Donna organized herself and a very small demonstration,
activity was negligible.
Admittedly cases such as Donna’s are now covered by a provision in the
Unfair Dismissals legislation which place a sacking because of
somebody’s sexuality on the same level as sacking because of sex, race
or religion.
In effect dismissal in such situations is presumed to be unfair but the
maximum the employee can obtain is a year’s wages. The usual award made
by the EAT is a lot less than that. Re-instatement is very rare. Most
young gays, lesbians and bisexuals work in poorly paid jobs like most
young people in Ireland so even a year’s wages will not amount to very
much.
What Donna faced is the reality for working class gay people. Being gay
in working class Ireland is not a lot easier after the legislation than
before. Employment appeal legislation only works if you succeed in
getting a job and holding onto it for a year. A young “out” gay person
is unlikely to succeed in doing that in their local community.
Gay social venues, at least in Dublin, tend to be dearer than almost any
other venue and they only exist so long as the people running them are
making enough money. Hence rumours that the owner of “The George”,
Dublin’s only major gay bar, is about to sell for a million pounds.
Fifis, a gay club, has already been sold for a large sum. The concept of
the “Pink Pound” is lauded in the gay press in Ireland and England.
Basically the idea behind this is that capitalists should welcome gay
people because they have more money to spend on consumer items,
expensive holidays, etc., because they don’t have children. This idea is
largely irrelevant to working class gay people
Most young gay people keep their sexuality to themselves for fear of
being kicked out of home. They know that support from the State in such
situations is minimal and inadequate. A large proportion of young
homeless men are on the street for this reason. In fact one of the
ironies of the Emmett Stagg affair recently was that he is the Minister
with responsibility for the homeless. A large number of homeless become
rentboys to survive. The Government’s record on housing this year is as
bad as ever. He should have been hounded because of his record in
housing, not because of his sexuality.
The reality is that a lot more battles have to be fought before gay
liberation is won. Even the new legislation is not irreversible.
Equality legislation gained in the 1970s is now being rolled back in the
United States.
The gay political movement did not always see its interests as lying
with the government of the day or as being a single issue unrelated to
other issues of oppression. They saw the struggle as being linked in
with other oppressed groups. For example, Gays against Imperialism was
formed in 1981 and identified the struggle for gay liberation with the
struggles for “national liberation” around H Block and Armagh prison.
Following the Charles Self Murder case in 1982 and the subsequent
harassment by GardaĂ of hundreds of gay men the Gay Defense Committee
was set up.
It was people like that who organised the 1,000 strong demonstration in
protest against the judgement in the case of Declan Flynn who was
murdered in a queer bashing incident in Fairview Park in 1983. The gang
who admitted to killing him and assaulting other gay people were given
suspended sentences. This march attracted the support of trade unions,
civil rights and left wing groups. At that time the issue of gay rights
was taken up within the unions, the result being an ICTU policy document
with detail as complete as pension rights for surviving partners. These
negotiation guidelines have been incorporated into much of the civil
service as well as some private sector companies.
For the gay movement to see its interests as lying completely with the
government and the introduction of progressive legislation is a mistake.
The struggle for real gay, lesbian and bisexual equality is far from
over. Tactically the real needs of the gay community will not be met by
relying on the government but the issue is wider than this. Oppression
because of sexual identity is but one facet of state oppression.
Gays are not oppressed on of a whim but because of the specific need of
capitalism for the nuclear family. The nuclear family, as the primary —
and inexpensive — provider and carer for the workforce, fulfilled in the
nineteenth century and still fulfills an important need for capitalism.
Alternative sexualities represent a threat to the family model because
they provide an alternative role model for people. Gays are going to be
in the front line of attack whenever capitalism wants to reinforce
“family values”. The introduction of Clause 28 in England is a good
example of this. The government made it illegal for public bodies to
“promote’ gay sexuality (i.e. to present it as anything other than a
“perversion”).
This oppression is one reason why the gay and lesbian movement is of
particular interest to Anarchists. It is not that we believe that all
gays and lesbians are revolutionaries. It is because we believe that the
experience of fighting oppression can show people the nature of the
state and that it is possible to fight it. It is through fighting that
people learn it is possible to win. One group winning a battle gives
other oppressed groups confidence. People gain confidence through
winning struggles.
NLGF feels quite confident with the coming to Dublin this summer of the
International Gay & Lesbian Youth conference, and the sending of an
Irish delegation to the twenty fifth anniversary march in commemoration
of the New York Stonewall riots, which kicked off the modern gay
movement. It should take advantage of this new found confidence to
rethink about its politics.