with Stephen Meyler

#DublinPride #CorporatePride #GCN30

LESS HEADLINE-GRABBING ACHIEVEMENTS

Pride comes around so fast every year doesn’t it? Nowadays, we’re lucky enough to always have something to celebrate too: the marriage equality referendum in 2015 and this year, the abortion referendum’s endorsement of a basic element of women’s autonomy.

There are other less headline-grabbing achievements to celebrate in 2018 too – a Private Member’s Bill to ban conversion therapy is on the way to the statute books and the activation of parts of the Children and Family Relationship Act, which was passed in 2015, is apparently just a matter of training registry offi ce staff.

This isn’t just a rubber-stamping exercise, as it would allow these ‘trained staff ’ to list two women as equal parents of an IVF child on a birth certifi cate, for instance. Currently, the children of lesbian couples often have just one ‘offi cial’ parent, giving the second few rights when it comes to the welfare of their children, which seems a bit inconsistent with marriage equality.

The gesture of the Irish soccer team lining up with rainbow-themed shirts for a friendly against the USA in the Aviva at the start of June is worth celebrating too. The Americans also wore Pride-themed shirts and while it might just be a few stitches on a jersey, the eff orts of the FAI and other football associations around the world to take homophobia out of the game are good news for gay players. This is especially important in 2018, with Russia hosting the World Cup and gay fans looking forward to a cold and possibly violent welcome from both offi cial authorities and the unoffi cial militias that have off ered their help in maintaining ‘morality’ at matches. Although Ireland won’t be there, gestures like rainbow-themed shirts seem important in the face of hostility.

I worked at GCN in the late ‘90s, at a time when it seemed like each issue would be its last.

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For the Americans, shirts are just the start of it for Pride Month in the US. Once again, their president has felt no urge to acknowledge millions of the people he leads this June (although ‘Ocean Week’ did get a mention in his schedule) and US Pride celebrations have been going back to their roots to emphasise their long-forgotten origins as protest. This might not be a bad thing, as so many Pride events – not just in the US – are criticised for having sold out to corporate sponsorship.

In Ireland, it seems like every one of the global corporations that has found a cosy low-tax home here will be at Pride at the end of the month, all furiously virtue-signalling how much they celebrate their LGBT+ employees. It’s easy to be cynical about such corporate displays, but surely people with a safe and enabling employer would want to celebrate having such a good place to work? Even better, maybe the Googles and Facebooks and Accentures might encourage more local employers and employees to do the same. Where are the Dublin Bus or the Kerry Group contingents for example? There are lots of reasons to criticise the big global companies with bases here, but their active pro-LGBT+ policies aren’t among them.

GCN AT 30

A final reason to celebrate Pride this month is right here in your hands. GCN’s fi rst editor, Tonie Walsh, is curating an exhibition at the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar that marks 30 years of this magazine. While it might seem a bit much for GCN to be blowing its own trumpet, publishing a queer rag every month for three decades without fail is an achievement as worthy of celebrating as any other. I worked at GCN in the late ’90s at a time when it seemed like each issue would be its last. Would the government renew the funding? Would the committee be able to fi nd an aff ordable new home when the lease ran out? Would the creaking computers hold out for another month? One of my jobs back then was to go around the corner to the offi ces of Hot Press and ask nicely if they would send our fi les to the printers every month, as we couldn’t aff ord the equipment to do it ourselves.

GCN back then was always dangling above disappearance, but everyone who worked there was able to ignore that in order to get the issue out each month. Now, although I’m no longer involved with the place apart from these monthly pieces, I’m sure they continue to fret about where the money will come from. That GCN persists in an era of such disruption of all media is a testament to the commitment and belief of its employees and the volunteers of the National LGBT Federation board.