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GAY BELFAST NEWS for March 2005
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Anti-gay clown speaks out - Again! (27 March 2005)
David McCartney, Development Co-ordinator with the Rainbow Project said "Staff, volunteers and service users at the Rainbow Project are appalled at the latest in a series of homophobic articles perpetrated by so called ‘pro-life’ campaigner Jennifer Barber and are outraged by her misuse of the current education crises as a thin veil to stage this verbal assault on some of the most vulnerable people in society.If anything the people of this city should be united in opposing the WELB cuts and not using them as an excuse to espouse personal prejudice against a minority. To infer that researching the severe conditions faced by gays in the education system over two years ago is somehow at the centre of a hidden agenda to undermine moral values is scaremongering at its absolute worst. Right now, young people are being grievously harmed by societal homophobia and such prejudicial comments only feeds into those engaging in hate crimes
The Shout Report which was launched by the Children’s Commissioner was a vital piece of research. This report for the first time highlighted the terrible impact of homophobia on young people in the education system. It highlighted that young gay people are traumatised by bullying and that they are five times more likely to be medicated for depression. This report was carried out against a backdrop of spiralling homophobic attacks and at a time when priests and ministers continued to officiate at the funerals of young people who have died by suicide as they felt they had nowhere to go for fear of moral judgement. Lives destroyed and families devastated because of twisted beliefs and taboos, little has been done since then to change that, those efforts which are taking place currently, whilst welcome, fail to even scratch the surface.
The Rainbow Project in Derry has not received a single penny from the education coffers and is the only gay group operating outside the Belfast area. Foyle Friend closed two years ago due to lack of funding and as things stand The Rainbow Project is facing severe cuts in its services which are currently operating at full stretch in order to meet an ever increasing demand.
Anti-gay campaigns should not be allowed to hide behind legitimate banners such as pro-life and pro family! To make this unbalanced article front page news is an affront. Such a thinly veiled attack on any other minority would not be tolerated; indeed it would be met with cries of shame by the media and politicians. This type of prejudice is not acceptable and only causes further hurt and pain. When highlighting inequality we have been accused of splitting hairs by some politicians, if people could only see the damage done by homophobia and the terrible price gay people have to pay for refusing to hide and pretend to be something they are not they might finally begin to understand what marginalisation can do to a community. In the meantime we will continue to help people pick up the pieces. To the many gay people out there and their families and friends we say don’t stand for this, name this for what it is bigotry and personal prejudice. Raise your voices and be heard".
Is Jennifer Barber playing with a full deck? Discuss on the Gay Belfast Forum
Housing Executive finally agree to protect gay people (17 March 2005)
The Housing Executive (the state housing authority in Northern Ireland) has announced it will introduce reforms next month, in a move that will offer lesbian and gay residents protection against discrimination for the first time. The Housing Executive says it will introduce the reforms from April, following criticisms by gay rights groups earlier this week. They were angry that a man was seemingly forced to flee from his home in Londonderry after being at the centre of verbal and physical abuse. Because the Housing Executive assesses complaints of abuse on a scale of intimidation that does not include sexuality, bosses refused to move the 20-year-old student.He moved to England earlier this year, but told the Belfast Telegraph that he would have preferred to stay in his local area. "They (Housing Executive) said we can't give you the intimidation points because it was a homophobic attack and not sectarian, and that was the rules. It made me feel like they were against me too. They wouldn't help me out at all."
Now the body says it will introduce abuse based on sexuality in its intimidation policy. Presently, the policy only allows for victims who are intimidated because of terrorism, sectarian or racist abuse. A spokesman told the Belfast Telegraph that the changes will "broaden" the definition of intimidation. Northern Ireland has been the focus of the media in recent months, with homophobic attacks seemingly on the rise in both frequency and ferocity. Victims have suffered from a range of abuse, both physical and verbal, with one victim having his house smeared in excrement. Last week, another victim revealed he was beaten by two men who claimed to be members of the IRA.
Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast Forum
Gay Belfast Singer Brian Kennedy finding life couldn't be much better (16 March 2005)
St Patrick's Day on BBC 1 NI at 10.50pm a one-off special, Brian Kennedy in New York, finds him looking at the impact Irish music has made on the Big Apple.In the show, Brian Kennedy traces how musicians with Irish - and Northern Irish - roots have left their mark on Broadway, Madison Square Gardens and Carnegie Hall. "Do you know," he says, "that the song Give My Regards to Broadway was written by an Irishman - George M Cohan? He changed his name from Keoghen because he felt that no-one would know how to pronounce it. Kennedy performs some of his favourite songs, duetting with Michael Ball, Moya Brennan, Liam Clancy and Dolores Keane. And there are also reminiscences from the likes of Dana and Terry Wogan.
The 37 year old singer from west Belfast, agrees that now is a good time for him. He's confident, happy and, in some ways, more self-sufficient than ever. "Life is extraordinary," he says. "This industry can be so peculiar. One minute you are riding the crest of a wave; the next, you're not. To be able to work full-time is a privilege beyond words. I love what I'm doing at the minute - it's a mix of so many different things. It's like crop rotation - sometimes I give the singing a rest and move on to writing, then it's back to singing. And I like being on the road, too. I cope with being on my own okay, although sometimes I've a tour manager with me. The truth is, I've always been independently-minded since I was a wee boy. Maybe that's a consequence of being one of a family of six and always feeling you had to carve out your own path."
But Kennedy, who is about to sell his home in Killahoe and set up permanent home in Dublin, remains as cagey as ever over whether there is someone special in his life. He came out as gay a few years back but he's never been publicly photographed with a partner. "There are a few special people in my life," he says when the subject comes up in a interview with Gail Walker from the Belfast Telegraph. "But, hey, I'm passionate about so many things - watching movies, having dinner parties, collecting art. Life couldn't be much better at the moment."
Jail for Man Who Stabbed Gay Man (12 March 2005)
A gay man who fled the Northern Ireland after being stabbed and beaten in a savage homophobic assault has spoken of his relief to the Belfast Telegrapgh as his attacker faced three years behind bars. Gerard McKinney was jailed after pleading guilty to wounding with intent Jim Maguire at his Londonderry home in last summer. Mr Maguire said he was "glad" McKinney had been jailed but added that he had hoped for a longer sentence. The attack took place after Mr Maguire let a female friend, two other girls and McKinney, whom he did not know, come to his house on June 5, 2004. Mr Maguire said that he had gone to his bedroom later in the evening and dozed off. He awoke in pain a short time later when McKinney began to hit him repeatedly on the head. "The next thing I knew I was on the floor and pieces of my two front teeth were lying beside me. I played dead," he said.Crown Counsel Stephen Fowler told a Belfast Court that the girls took McKinney to the kitchen to calm him down but he lifted a small kitchen knife, returned to the bedroom, and stabbed Mr Maguire in the chest. In a bizarre twist, McKinney then used his victim's mobile phone to call an ambulance and assisted Mr Maguire to the end of the road to await its arrival. But as they sat on a wall, the sadistic attack resumed. Mr Maguire said McKinney asked to see his wound. "I showed it to him and he stuck his finger in it and twisted his finger round. He said: 'If you tell the cops that was me, you are dead, you queer bastard."
Speaking from his new home in England, Mr Maguire says he has no plans to ever return to Northern Ireland. "I don't really want to be in England but I am terrified over there," he said. "I hate the man who did this and I am glad he has gone down." Defence counsel Eilish McDermott, QC, told the court hearing that McKinney's behaviour resulted from "a combination of his propensity for violence, his abuse of alcohol and to a lesser extent, drugs". Sentencing McKinney to three years and 15 months probation, Judge Tom Burgess ordered him to undergo treatment for alcohol abuseand anger management.
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