Inside SLM

Ireland’s first Sexual Liberation Movement started as an undercover meeting between ten Trinity College students in the final months of 1973. As part of a new series, Ethan Moser interviews the people behind the SLM.

So far in GCN’s deep dive into the founders of Ireland’s first Sexual Liberation Movement, both Edmund Lynch and Mary Dorcey have been profiled for the roles they played in the movement. For this month’s Pride issue, we will be taking a closer look at the role David Norris played alongside his previously mentioned compatriots.

Despite being an Irish scholar and an incumbent senator in Seanad Eireann, Norris was actually born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1944. When Norris’ father died while serving in the British Armed Forces, a still-young David was sent to live with his mother in Ireland.

In addition to being known for his 2011 presidential campaign, Norris made history as the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Ireland when he joined Seanad Éireann in 1987. Similarly, Norris is known internationally for his pivotal role in having “managed, almost single-handedly, to overthrow the anti-homosexuality law which brought about the downfall of Oscar Wilde,” a feat accomplished thanks to the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, an organisation that splintered out from the foundation of the Sexual Liberation Movement in 1974.

In a 2021 interview with fellow SLM founder Edmund Lynch as part of the Irish LGBTI+ Oral History Project, Norris shared his earliest memories of joining the gay rights movement in Ireland: “Well, you and I, Edmund, both joined the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in 1969, which is a long time ago. It’s over 50 years ago, I think...then there was a meeting in Trinity about sexuality, but it turned out completely about homosexuality,” Norris said.

“Then we founded the Sexual Liberation Movement... we met in the top of number four, Trinity College, New Square, and we all contributed sixpence for coffee and stuff and talked about this and that and the other. And we wrote letters to newspapers looking for contraception. Eventually I said, ‘Come on! What’s this about? We’re writing letters for contraception; we’re all gay. Why don’t we do something about that? We should form a political movement...we’re looking for our rights, so we should become the Irish Gay Rights Movement.’”

When asked about his experience campaigning with the SLM in those early days, Norris referred to the meetings as “rather interesting”. “To be in the company of so many other gay people...It was stimulating, it was encouraging, it gave us real moral reinforcement. Because the image of gay people up until then had been so terribly, terribly negative.” Together with the likes of Edmund Lynch, Mary Dorcey, Ruth Riddick, Margaret McWilliams, Irene Brady, Michael Kerrigan, Gerry McNamara, and Hugo McManus, David Norris marched for our rights in 1974. In his interview with Lynch, Norris shared an anecdote about the event: “It was only very small. And I had a placard that said ‘Homosexuals are revolting’, which is supposed to be a double entendre. “And the 46A bus nearly crashed through the railings when the driver saw it. They were unloading the minister’s new carpet outside, and the helper got out and took one look at me and the placard and said, ‘Jaysus, Mick, fucking queers!’ And Mick got out and took a look and said, ‘What about it? I don’t give a bollocks, a picket’s a fucking picket, mate.’ And he took up my placard and walked around with it for half an hour. It was a great example of worker solidarity.”

Despite Norris’ involvement in the Sexual Liberation Movement, the senator has gone on record as saying that sex is not a necessary facet of a romantic partnership. He made the comments in regards to his long-standing relationship with the late Ezra Nawi.

Norris maintained a relationship with Nawi, an Israeli human rights activist, for nearly 50 years. That being said, Norris told Lynch that the two rarely had sex. “I mean I didn’t sleep with Ezra; we didn’t have sexual relations very frequently. But I just loved him, and you know, this is the wonderful thing. Just to be in his company was wonderful. I mean the sun was brighter, the sky was bluer, everything was more intense. It’s a wonderful, wonderful feeling, being in love, and I’m delighted that I experienced it. It would be a terrible thing to go through life without falling in love,” Norris mused.

Despite the love he and Nawi shared, their relationship was often used as ammunition against Norris as he tried to establish himself in the Irish political sphere. Regardless of these challenges, however, Norris was able to claim his seat in the Senate in 1987. “My life has been wonderful in the Senate,” Norris said. “I have enjoyed it so much. It’s been ever-changing, always stimulating, always interesting, and of course I’ve had wonderful colleagues.” Today Norris is the longest continuously serving member that the Irish Senate has ever seen.

When told by Lynch that he would be remembered as the leader of the gay rights movement, Norris responded humbly, saying, “I think that’s a little bit unfair to regard me a s the leader, because as you know, Edmund, there were so many people in the gay community who supported us.”