Calling homosexuality “a discovery, not a decision,” Irish President Mary McAleese urged her country to ease up on the gays. Speaking at a Suicide Prevention conference, McAleese sent this message:
Ireland is making considerable progress in developing a culture of genuine equality, recognition and acceptance of gay men and women. But there is still an undercurrent of both bias and hostility which young gay people must find deeply hurtful and inhibiting.”
Homosexuality is a discovery, not a decision, and for many it is a discovery which is made against a backdrop where, within their immediate circle of family and friends as well as the wider society, they have long encountered anti-gay attitudes which will do little to help them deal openly and healthily with their own sexuality.
McAleese also said that there needs to be more exploration into the links between sexuality and suicide. Young men make up 40% of Ireland’s estimated 500 each year. What a waste of perfectly good lads.
adamblast
Can you imagine Hillary saying something as clear, helpful and on-point about gay rights in America? Not bloody likely.
cjc
The Irish president is the head of state, not the head of government. Bertie Ahern is the prime minister and at the reins of policy.
Still, her words are awesome and I’m glad she spoke out. I can’t imagine similar figurehead-presidents in Israel or Germany doing the same thing.
Bill Perdue
The very best you can say about Irish President Mary McAleese is that she may mean well. She’s definitely got good staffers – they listened when gays and lesbians pointed out the links between anti gay hatred and suicide among young men. She daringly opined that there ‘appeared’ to be an attitude which encouraged bullying of all sorts and the deeply hurtful abuse of gay people.
What she can’t and didn’t say is that the bullying and abuse can be traced directly to the doorstep of the roman catholic cult and their anglican catholic little brothers. There, Sunday after Sunday, the raving lunacies of the dark ages are let loose again and again. The compulsive hatred of gays is one of these and it’s the root of bullying, antigay hatred, beatings, harassment, murder and suicide.
If Mary McAleese should ever want to be considered a genuine leader she can do some of the following things.
Every time there’s a beating or murder arrest a few priests and couple of bishops and put them to hard labor for life.
Every time a denied abortion results in death arrest a dozen nuns and make them pass out condoms in schools for life.
As soon as the Brit Army of occupation gets out of Ireland send the Garda SÃochána na hÉireann to Belfast, arrest the leaders and activists of the antigay terrorist Paisleyites, give them fast fair trials and put them up against the wall.
When vacancies occur in the courts , the public prosecutors office or the Garda appoint gay, lesbian or Sinn Féin activists to fill them.
In other words, Mary McAleese, get real.
kellygrrrl
Bill – I read recently that the number of Irish citizens who had been molested by Catholic clergy is at 60% right now. that means more people there WERE molested than weren’t.
So I’m not entirely certain how much weight the Catholic church carries these days. Even if the citizens are still going to church, out of some sense of duty, or because it is so ingrained in their social structure, IDT they are giving the priests a whole lot of credit.
Bill Perdue
Kellygrrrl…
Sixty percent?! They’ve been busy. I had no idea it was that high. Do you know if most of that occurred when the victims were children? (I hope the fuckers were using condoms and not relying on holy water to prevent STD’s.)
What you said was basically correct. The power of reactionary groups like the roman cult lies in the residue of the culture they shaped for over a thousand years. It’ll change as the revolutionary secularist and scientific transformation of society proceeds. Their other strong points are a centralized organization and accumulated wealth and power. Their power will continue the decline that began with the rise of the Republican movement. They’re identified with the Dark Ages, as child rapists, and on political and social questions as extreme reactionaries.
However, they’re still a power to be reckoned with. They need to be suppressed and the easy way to get the ball rolling is to ask for some hard-hitting but levelheaded reforms.
Tax them like Sony and other entertainment companies.
Keep them away from children unless armed police are present.
Forbid them to interfere on social and political questions. Let them count angels on the head of a pin, but the other discussions have to be limited to sane people.
Confiscate (without compensation) jewelry, land and other wealth and make them PAY for abusing children.
If their gay hating sermons lead to harassment, beatings and murder lock them up and lose the key.
For now, no party that I know of, including Sinn Fein, has plans to do that, although SF is the only party that could move in that direction. It’s a job for revolutionists and socialists. We’re good at it.
hellofromireland
re 60%- it’s not so
it is believed to be one in four people have been sexually abused,
ref SAVI report (27%) will experience sexual abuse before the age of 18.
Prevalence of Sexual Violence Child Sexual Abuse (defined as sexual abuse of children and adolescents under age 17 years).
Girls: One in five women (20.4 per cent) reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood with a further one in ten (10.0 per cent) reporting non-contact sexual abuse. In over a quarter of cases of contact abuse (i.e. 5.6 per cent of all girls), the abuse involved penetrative sex — either vaginal, anal or oral sex.
Boys: One in six men (16.2 per cent) reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood with a further one in four-teen (7.4 per cent) reporting non-contact sexual abuse. In one of every six cases of contact abuse (i.e. 2.7 per cent of all boys), the abuse involved penetrative sex — either anal or oral sex.’
Source: McGee, H. Garavan, R., De Barra, M. Byrne, J and Conroy, R. (2002).The SAVI Report – Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland. Dublin: Liffey Press in Association with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
see
http://www.oneinfour.org/
the above organisation is supported in Ireland by Irish Government.
Bill Perdue
hellofromireland…
Hello from Las Vegas, and thanks. It’s an impressive web site and I love it that the Dublin Fire Brigade is helping them collect money. One piece of good news from here, with the recent settlement of lawsuits in the Los Angeles archdiocese the total the roman cult in the US is paying out has topped three billion dollars! There are several more major lawsuits and joint actions still winding their ways through the courts.
NeoAurelianus
Hmmm… what to address first?
First – my discomfort when discussions about homosexuality intertwine almost seamlessly with discussions of pedophilia. Ick… If we were discussing Hurricane Katrina wouldn’t it strike you as odd if I began to explain how to remove the chain from my bicycle?
Second, the fact any high-ranking Irish official, nominal office or not, spoke such sensible and compassionate words is a good sign.
Third, the Roman Catholic Church has as much credibility as the Third Reich. My fervent desire is that it’s lengthy record of rewarding pedophiles world-wide causes it to be litigated out of existence.
Fourth, my third point sorta negates my first point but the topics had already been introduced… and enumeration logically separated the topics, I guess. I’m going to stick to that, anyway.
hellofromireland
Hi guys, I agree with NeoAurelianus 1st point, it’s ick. Ick needs discussion. I just saw the 60% and I felt it was inaccurate. Anyway didn’t mean to distract from the wonderful contribution by the President on suicide, or upset anyone. And am not into knocking anyone, or the church. All the best 🙂
Great site queerty:)
CitizenGeek
Yeah, we’re lucky in having two women presidents in succession. The previous president, Mary Robinson, helped with the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993.