Fighting Stigma One Test at a Time

From the Team
Welcome, dear reader, to the Pride edition of GCN!

The Galas Awards
Happy Pride from all of us on the NXF board! We hope that everyone has a joyful and safe Pride month.

NFX at Dublin Pride 2023: A Year of Significance
The National LGBT Federation (NXF) is looking forward to once again participating in the Dublin LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations.

Inside SLM
Ireland’s first Sexual Liberation Movement started in the final months of 1973. As part of a new series, Ethan Moser interviews the people behind the SLM.

Aiteach agus Gaelach
AerachAiteachGaelach (AAG) is a queer arts collective which operates through Irish. Ciara Ní É explains the similarities between Pride in our language and in our identities.

Back to Our Roots
‘Pride is a Protest!’ isn’t just a sentence that’s printed on tote bags. As Swantje Mohrbeck describes, it’s a sentence to remind everyone that Pride is more than just the big happy party it sometimes appears to be.

Preserving Our Stories
With the exciting upcoming digital launch of GCN’s archive - sharing our LGBTQ+ history with the public for the first time - Stefano Pappalardo describes his own journey alongside that project.

The Revival of Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre
“Following extensive consultations with our communities and stakeholders over six months in late 2022 and early ‘23, it is with great excitement I am sharing our new five-year plan for Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre,” says Oisín O’Reilly (he/him), CEO of Outhouse.

A Liberating Party
As we mark the 40th anniversary of the Dublin Pride Parade and the 30th anniversary of decriminalisation, Tonie Walsh traces the evolution of Ireland’s largest and oldest LGBTQ+ Pride festival.

Better Out Than In
DublOUT is a stunning new photography exhibition by Dean O’Sullivan seeking to connect the LGBTQ+ community through our shared experiences. Dean kindly shared a taster of what to expect and explained why this was a project that needed to be made.

A Growing Legacy
In 2023, Belong To, the organisation supporting LGBTQ+ youth, leaves its teen years and turns 20. Iarf hlaith O’Connell celebrates the impact it has had on Irish society and shares their own experience with an iconic and beloved institution.

13 Years of Mother
The year was 2010, the last vestige of time in which, when the beat dropped in the club, there would be thousands of hands in the air simultaneously cutting through the laser lights instead of holding up little glowing bars to film it. It was the year Mother launched.

Uncharted
Back in the distant 2015, sub-prime lender AmigoLoans commissioned a study about the most important milestones people hope to achieve in life and at what age they expect to do so. Beatrice Fanucci noticed a marked difference between what are considered ‘big life moments’ for the queer community and our straight counterparts.

Pride Body
There is never a good year to be fat, but even by the usual standards of societal fatphobia, 2023 has really taken the proverbial cake right out of our chubby hands with a healthy dose of fat-shaming “for our own good,” shares James O’Hagan.

Ireland's Decade of Hate
With its warm and welcoming culture, Ireland has long been seen as a beacon of tolerance and acceptance. Recent years, however, have been marked by a troubling rise in violent, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Charlie Hayward asks where it all went wrong.

No Place Like Home
Fun Home, an acclaimed musical adaptation of the iconic graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, debuts shortly at Dublin’s Gate Theatre. Letícia Barbosa gets the lowdown from the creative team behind a riveting true story of coming out and long-hidden family secrets. Photo by Ros Kavanagh.

Rainbow Connection
Coming on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, The All Island LGBTQIA+ Forum was launched to improve north-south cooperation between Irish organisations. Keev Ní Bhaoill gets the lowdown from those involved on what is promising to be an inspiring team-up.

Success in Solidarity
Pride resonates with the echoes of our defiant history. It draws inspiration from the queer warriors that fought for our liberation. Their courage is a thread that weaves through the fabric of every Pride flag, reminding us that we too can ignite change.

More Than One Direction
On June 28, 2010, a 16 year-old boy from Mullingar walked onto the infamous X Factor stage in the hopes of landing his big break. When asked by Louis Walsh why he was auditioning, he said, “I’m here to be the best artist I can be”. Elliott Salmon shares how that is exactly what Niall Horan has done.

Steps to a Better Sex Life
We’re lucky to be part of a community where we are able to be more open about our sex and our sex lives than most of the population. Our sexual desires and preferences, after all, are largely what we have in common. Chris Rooke shares news of We-Consent - an important new campaign ensuring we have the best sex lives possible.

Queer Shelter
An adequate standard of living has become even more unattainable for many people across Ireland due to the ongoing housing crisis. Oisín Kenny explores the ways in which a growing lack of affordable housing harms the LGBTQ+ community by continuously restricting their access to vital support services, secure spaces, and each other.

Coverage of Decriminalisation
June 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of what is commonly referred to as ‘Decriminalisation’; essentially, the passing of the Sexual Offences Bill 1993. Han Tiernan looks back at the progression of the movement and how it was covered in the pages of GCN -Ireland’s national queer press.

Fighting Stigma One Test at a Time
Extraordinary community heroes are the backbone of MPOWER’s work. Brídín Ní Fhearraigh-Joyce speaks to the dedicated and understanding volunteers providing rapid HIV testing in LGBTQ+ spaces and hears why they do what they do.

Pride for All?
With the community about to come together for Pride celebrations across the country, Vic Kelly-Victor shares how accessibility to Pride shouldn’t be something special and what needs to be done to ensure inclusion for all.

Don't Ask - Don't Tell
While many may think that teachers in our country don’t face discrimination because of their identity, Primary Education Officer at Education Equality, Simon Lewis shares the reality of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in Irish primary schools.

Stand Together
35 years down the line, the Ireland I came out in now seems like an alien planet. It was a fiercely hostile place for women: the Eighth Amendment had just been inserted into the Constitution.