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Focál Up!

The Trouble With Oliver

Water Cooler Chatter

So, impersonator Oliver Callan got our queer ire up this month, writing in the Cork Pride programme about his late coming out (aged 31), and saying that straight people can never fully understand what it means to be gay. That might be true, but never one not to labour a point to the point of offence, Ollie put it like this: “The breeders just don’t get it, even if they try.” The Facebook comments came quick and fast when we put the story out on gcn.ie, the general consensus being that ‘breeders’ is a pretty offensive term, while gay and trans people actually reproduce, so plenty of ‘breeders’ actually do get it.

It’s not the first time Oliver has been in trouble with the gays. In fact he came out amid accusations of homophobia, particularly after he impersonated David Norris saying the reason ex-GAA player turned designer, Paul Galvin was such a fashion expert was because of all his years spent in the closet. Straight man, Galvin went loco, and Callan responded by throwing open his own closet doors at last.

Despite believing straight people just don’t understand him, Oliver is such a conservative queer, he puts Taoiseach Leo in the ha’penny place. Last year he wrote in The Sun that many Repeal the Eighth supporters have “given no real thought to what they’re supporting, only that it’s the cool thing to do,” while his anti-feminist rant in the Irish Times, also last year, dragged drag queens and “their disgusting satire on women,” through the mud.

Since all this comes from the mouth of a gay man, it’s given some sort of credence, as if Oliver’s only piping up with a bit of straight-talking the rest of us don’t have the courage to do. But when did being plain offensive become courageous? And, eh, why is a drag queen hater writing in a Pride programme? Oliver Callan – national nob or straight-talker? You decide.

Conor Behan’s Record of The Month

ALLIE X – CollXtion II

This summer pop heavyweights like Katy Perry and Lorde gained notice for new albums. More than ready to join their ranks, cult-pop darling Allie X continues to hone her sound to perfection. Direct, brilliantly-realised pop songs characterise her newest release CollXtion II, mixing sharp lyrics with sophisticated choruses with instant hooks. Go, gurl!

Game of Gender Equality?

In the new season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Winter has arrived in Westeros and so too has gender equality. In the epic season opener, newly-crowned King in the North (the King in t’North!) Jon Snow tells the sparse remains of his bannermen that the time for the North to defend itself from the White Walkers has come, and it will need all of its population – men, women, girls and boys – to do so.

“You expect me to put a spear in my granddaughter’s hand?” asks an outraged Lord Glover.

Precocious preteen Lady Mormont of Bear Island (a firm favourite after last season) may as well be speaking for every woman ever disappointed by the show’s (mis)treatment of women when she tartly responds: “I don’t plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me.”

“I might be small, Lord Glover, and I might be a girl, but I am every bit as much a Northerner as you,” she adds. “And I don’t need your permission to defend the North.”

This coupled with the fact three of the most powerful charcters – unstoppable assassin Arya, Dragon lady Daenerys and Cersei the C Word are women, powerful women with power (for a change), this season of Game of Thrones could be the first to do justice to its female characters.

Or they may all be unexpectedly murdered. Such is the Dance of Dragons, little sparrows!

Feel The Burn

Veteran scene DJs Paddy Scahill (pictured) and Karen have broken out of their nightclub booths and joined forces to bring you the punderfully-named podcast The Gay Burn Show on Phever FM.

According to Paddy and Karen, the show aims to provide an insight into the ‘scene’ for the curious, also offering up a lighthearted monthly slice of news, views and sizzling sounds for those in the know. However, the pair are determined to ensure that the show doesn’t shy away from more serious issues either, with the first show featuring an interview with Will St Leger about the ACT UP HIV/AIDS campaign.

Add to that regular contributions by legendary queer activist, musical messiah and GCN founder, Tonie Walsh, comic relief and roving reports from lege’ AMI winner, Paddy Fagan, and you’ve got your evening commute listening sorted.

Catch The Gay Burn Show at Phever at 91.6FM on Fridays, episode podcasts available on Mixcloud, Phever.ie

Fringe Queerness

We’re super-sad to see that gorgeous Dublin Fringe programmer, Kris Nelson is moving on, but we wish him fabulousness in his new job for at London’s Lift festival and know he’ll hold Ireland’s fair city close to his heart forever more.

He’s going out on a high note, though, with a programme that’s all about disrupting the status quo and staging from September 9 to 24. The shows we’re especially looking forward to include the lovely Louise Bruton’s (pictured) Why won’t You Have Sex With Me?, which challenges non-disabled assumptions that disabled people are sexless beings; The Power of Wow in which self-made queer pop star Xnthony gets heteronormally hitched in the celeb wedding of the millennium; Ivan Coyote’s Tomboy Survival Guide, which dismantles ideas of gender as an all-tomboy band gets its strut on; Lucy McCormick’s Triple Threat, a morality play for the modern world inspired by the queers and queens of East London; and Fully Automated Luxury Gender Oasis, a trans art salon that serves up queer performance with tea and biscuits. This year’s RIOT promises to be Closing Night from Film Fatale, a superstar vaudeville cabaret with its eye on the end game. More at fringefest.com.

The ‘L’ Better Not Stand For Lies!

L Word creator Ilene Chaiken set the internet (not to mention the GCN offices) aflame in June after casually hinting to Entertainment Weekly that she’d be down for another series of the groundbreaking lesbian drama.

EW reunited the cast for a special photoshoot for magazine’s LGBT+ issue, and pumped Chaiken for information on an more substantial show reunion. She admitted that it’s something she talks about often, adding that after the show went off the air in 2009 a lot of people thought, “’Okay, the baton is passed now, and there will be lots of shows that portray lesbian life.’ There’s really nothing. It feels like maybe it should come back.”

And with that one vague, but tantalising sentence, the L Word fans exploded in a glittery mess of Twitter speculation: Will Jenny still be dead (fingers crossed)? Will Shane still be broodier than Tom Hardy/Heathcliff sandwich? Will they bring Dana back as a zombie? We can’t wait to find out!

Talking Flare Tactics

GCN Town Hall Talks go to GAZE this month for a special screening and panel discussion entitled Flare Tactics: Queer Media Making and Creative Activism, and we think it should be a definite date for your diary.

We find ourselves in a place when LGBT+ people enjoy greater freedoms then at any other time in history. But outside our privileged bubble, LGBT+ people in places like Chechnya or Mosul are still victimised, persecuted and murdered for their queer identities.

Activism and art have always gone hand-inhand as disciplines dedicated to challenging the status quo, but how can artists and other creatives apply their skills to activism? How do we reframe our queer narratives beyond just reacting to attack, beyond mainstream assimilation of queer politics and culture? This GCN Town Hall Talk aims to explore new roads of resistance.

The event will include a curated programme of activist short films and will be followed by a discussion with a group of panelists, including GCN Editor, Brian Finnegan, Paul Rowley (Gays Against Guns), Ruth McCarthy (Outburst Queer Arts Festival) and Dr. Monica Pearl (University of Manchester/ACT Up New York).

GCN Town Hall Talks: Flare Tactics is at The Light House Cinema, Monday August 7 at 1.30pm.

Vogue Goes Gender In Zayn

Oh, what it is to be young and rich and ensconsed in a protective bubble of continual praise and copious Instagram likes!

When Vogue wanted to do a serious feature about gender fluidity, naturally they approached the world’s foremost sexual anthopologists, former One Directioner Zayn Malik and his model girlfriend, Gigi Hadid.

Naturally, a cis young man whose sole claim to fame is having lovely eyelashes, and his cis gf are voices which need to be heard on such a complicated and occasionally fraught subject. The couple’s insight on the world of gender fluidity mainly involved them misunderstanding the term, telling the magazine that being non-binary was all about borrowing each other’s t-shirts.

“It’s not about gender,” the all-knowing Hadid opined. “It’s about, like, shapes. And what feels good on you that day.”

Of course, Vogue apologised after Twitter hell broke loose, saying they “missed the mark,” but that has a whiff of bullshit about it too.

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