“Thank you for setting out your questions below. I will endeavour to answer them as best I can, although several of them seem to me rather curiously-phrased, or to tackle questions from a very unusual point of view. Others I found irritatingly vague or imprecise, assuming, it would appear, that we both speak from some unspoken context or other.

Sorry I’m just reading your e-mail through properly again where you requested that I paste the questions into this e-mail. I have sent an attachment in the previous e-mail but just in case it won’t open here are the questionSeand andsers again.”

1. Do you think the Sexual Orientation Regulations were necessary? If so why?

This is one example of what I find a weird approach. Do you believe that ANY equal rights legislation is NOT “necessary”? I suppose that we COULD follow St Paul’s counsel to slaves to meekly accept their lot in life as ordained of God, and to pray for their master. My approach would be Res Ipsa Loquitur, freedom and equality are not any man’s gift to another, but a basic and inalienable right belonging to every man. We could talk all year about equality and freedom, but I suspect that isn’t what you want to hear.

This question was one of the points raised by the Christian Institute high court challenge to the recent GFS legislation, and was quite effectively thrown out of court by the judge.

You are not SERIOUSLY suggesting that the law nowadays should disadvantage one person against another, just because one person is of a different gender (eg female), or colour (black), or religion (Jewish) or whatever?

Or are you really unaware of widespread homophobia? Two of my lesbian friends sat together on a late-night buSeand held hands. A drunk man glared at them and then smashed one of them in the face with his fist. Do you really think it is all right to allow such attitudes to fester in society? If you do, what’s your attitude to racism? Or the good old Nazi practice of eliminating the mentally ill?

2. What do you feel is your role in society in relation to the SORS?

Another very strange question. When you say “my role” – whom exactly do you mean by “me”? Do you mean retired people (I’m retired), do you mean citizens of Northern Ireland / United Kingdom / European Union, do you mean men (as opposed to women – the Presbyterian Church here is arguing about a women’s right to preach), or what? Perhaps you meant to ask what part I played (or my organisation played) in bringing about the SORS?

And why this (rather patronising, it sounds) “do I FEEL is my role”? Am I not qualified to KNOW (not merely feel)? Surely the question should be “What role did you play etc” or “What IS your role in etc”?

Similarly with “in society”? Where ELSE would I exercise my role? In the divine order of creation? In the fierce law of nature? Every human being exists per se in society: it is a datum, a given. That, after all, is why we need laws at all.

I am proud to say that NIGRA helped very much in the struggle for some measure of equality and human dignity. We communicated with hundreds of people, organising volunteers through many sister organisations in the LGBT community, fighting especially the lieSeand misinformation of some of our so-called Christian opponents.

3. Why do you think Northern Ireland was only permitted a 2 month consultation period in which to respond to the Regulations yet the
rest of the UK was granted 3 months?

Here you betray a serious lack of research, and a certain bias in your choice of term. It was to do with legislative “windows” in the calendar. Legislation does not pass from draftsmen into law every day of the week, but in batches. The opponents of law reform claimed that the consultation period was too short. David Ford of the Alliance Party effectively trashed this lie when he pointed out in the Assembly debate that any group which genuinely wanted to oppose the legislation seemed to have managed quite effectively to do so within the time allotted. I recommend that you read the Assembly Hansard.

4. How do you think the SORS will impact and have effect on NI socity? Do you think it will differ any compared to the rest of the UK?

“It” will differ – WHAT will differ, pray? Clearly the SORS will be the same over the whole kingdom – I don’t understand your question.

I can think of at least one possible difference in application. The LGBT community here generously allowed the legislation to stipulate that where a bed-and-breakfast business was carried on in the family home, the business could continue to discriminate. We didn’t need to be so generous (there are no such let-outs for those who wish to discriminate racially or on religious grounds, for example), and the regulations for Great Britain may well not allow this lee-way.

The BBC tested the new regulations by hawking two lesbians around the north coast resorts of CountieSeantrim and Derry, only to find the couple welcomed in every boarding house they tried. It was with great glee that I pointed out to the perplexed production staff that the infamous case where two gay men had been refused a double bed in a bed-and-breakfast occurred NOT in Northern Ireland at all but in Scotland! Public attitudes in Northern Ireland were in this case quite demonstrably much more liberal than those in large areas of Great Britain. It also reinforced the lesson that Northern Ireland’s reputation for intolerance is based only on the loud-mouthed ranting of a very small minority which arrogantly claims to speak for the vast, silent majority.

5. Would you say that legislation is formed for NI with a specific Northen Irish context?

No, it clearly is not. As noted above, the British government and a lot of people in Great Britain assume that everyone in Northern Ireland is as bigoted and unpleasant as Dr Paisley and his followers, and this impression is fostered by the lies of the Christian Institute (in, for example, their infamous half-page ad in the News Letter, with a similar half-page in The Times). Baroness O Cathain, for example, claimed in the House of Lords that every party in Northern Ireland would oppose gay rights measures – which is a downright lie. Lord Maginness of Drumglass was spectacularly humbled in the Lords when he tried a similar trick.

The treasurer of my organisation, Jeffrey Dudgeon, took the first Strasbourg case against the UK government, trouncing Mrs Thatcher’s government and completely undoing Dr Paisley’s infamous Campaign to Save Ulster from Sodomy.

6. With regards the law, Lord Devlin has argued, “What the law-maker has to ascertain is not the true belief but the common belief”- Do you think a democratically elected body exists to upholdthe will of the majority?

Would this by any chance be the judge who insisted on unjustly keeping six Irishmen in a Birmingham prison for life, because to admit any doubt in their case would open “an appalling vista”? If so, I’m afraid his opinions don’t carry much weight in Ireland, which has proved a graveyard for the reputation not only of so many otherwise eminent British politicians but also of many British legal figures (such as Lord “Whitewash” Widgery).

Be very careful when using words like “majority” in a Northern Ireland context. This is long-recognised unionist-speak for “Protestant power” – the great Unionist premier of Northern Ireland frankly and proudly described Stormont as “A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People.” Those attitudes are now happily consigned to the dustbin of history, along with Apartheid in South Africa (“Separate but Equal Development”) and Nazism in Germany.

Quite clearly, we in Northern Ireland appear finally to have learned the painful lesson that a majority cannot ignore all minorities, but must seek a more British type of consensus where possible. Did you really mean to ask “Is it the function of a democratically elected body etc” – rather than asking has Northern Ireland actually GOT a democratically elected government (which is how your question reads)?
Perhaps you could clarify this for me?

7. What is your view and/ or experience when the rights to religious freedom conflict with the rights of sexual freedom?

I rarely see any conflict between these rights. I make an exception in the case of ritual gen**al mut**ation of females, which is required by certain religions, or the Indian religious practices of Suttee (which encouraged a widow to demonstrate her love for her dead husband by throwing herself on his funeral pyre, to perish along with him – often a cloak for a plot to dispose of a redundant mother-in-law) and Thuggee (sacred murder of travellerSeand strangers aSean offering to the goddess Kali), as well as the Mormon religious custom of polygamy (which often manifests itself as subjugation and exploitation of young girls) or many of the provisions of Sharia law (such as stoning to death of rape victims).

In the Irish Republic it was until recently against the law for any couple to divorce, no matter what their circumstances or beliefs. In general, like most people, I don’t mind other people practising their religion, provided they don’t use their God myth to tell ME what to do or not to do. One thing I detest (like a growing percentage of the public) is those discordant, over-miked street preachers. If only they’d learn from the Sally Army and present their message in beautiful brass-band music, THAT I would enjoy!

8. Do you have sympathy for the opposing view? What do you make of the counter argument?

WHAT opposing view? WHAT counter arguments, pray? You’re surely not going to argue FOR any of the religious “freedoms” that I listed above? Wasn’t it Jeanette Winterson’s book that was set in Dundee or that area? (Maybe I’m wrong) And I know that you have so far only one Pride celebration for the whole Kingdom of Scotland – LGBT folk in Dundee are still finding their legs, according to Scotsgay. Give me some details of these viewSeand arguments, and I’ll be better able to answer you.

Remember, Ms Stewart, no-one is born a Presbyterian or a Catholic – children the world over are indoctrinated by their parents / family / peer-group / gang / whatever. They often adopt one or other set of illogical beliefs – and then claim special rights for, as it were, believing in the silliest of things. This illogicality is accorded the most solemn rights, and its practitioners put on a par with policemen and teachers of science!

LGBT children, on the other hand, can be distinguished from as early an age as we can measure (Wolfenden Report), and appear to have no more choice than to be right-handed or red-haired. How can any sane person compare my right to write with my left hand, with my neighbour’s right not to be mocked for believing in Santa Claus?

Please expand upon your questions, and / or follow this up with supplementary questions. I am sorry if I have not supplied you with the answers you sought, but am willing to continue this correspondence and clarify as much as possible.

Wales to the English monoglot). A Different Light, Washington DC, expressed an interest in stocking Gay Star, as did a number of outlets in mainland

Europe but the postage costs were prohibitive.The major outlets were – inevitably – in
Belfast, where two thirds of the population of the relevant region reside. These included the premises run by Cara-Friend, in

University Street
, within the Carpenter Club premises, Long Lane, and in

Cathedral Building,

Donegall Street
(for the past twenty years). The Carpenter Club, Long Lane, has already been mentioned (see Jeff Dudgeon’s History of Gay Belfast the inverted commas presumably provided by the original publishers). upstart was distributed in the other discos the most long-lasting being that at the Limelight, Ormeau Avenue, run by Patrick James a contributor to GS and upstart.

The biggest single outlet was Just Books bookshop (the latter word is not redundant), as there was a cafeand also Print Workshop in the same premises, (

7 Winetavern Street

, in downtown

Belfast). Print Workshop, essentially Dave and Marilyn Hyndman, printed many Gay Star’s, at essentially cost (and less!) price. This was, to put it mildly, a great help, especially as immediately after the
Strasbourg effort NIGRA had very little money in the kitty. Ann Gleaves typeset the material to go into the journal, sometimes from very scruffy bits of paper, of irritatingly different sizes, for tiny amounts of money. We were later allowed access to the type setting facilities in Print Workshop (Ann, from the west of England, spent a deal of time and effort in the late 1980s type setting the only daily Irish language journal L ). {This is quite important the begrudgers are always whinging about Unionism’ as if it waSean uncommon matter in NornIrl this connection just screws it up especially aSeann was very fond of GS she committed suicide in 1992, but that’s not relevant here. Could you e-mail this to me, I may remember other compromising’ material. We need to defeat the begrudgers before they even get their first wind. (No, I’m not being paranoid I’m a full-time noid).}Later in the 80s we had access to Athol Books’s DTP and printing set-up, essentially for nothing. We paid for the processing of plates’ for printing and for the papers. The rest was a matter of our own time and effort. This is embarrassing from a trade union perspective (but the people producing the paper were members of ASTMS (later ) and GMB, at the time) and the costs were even less than those we paid out to Print Workshop. They were not unlike Print Workshop’s efforts superfine examples of the printer’s art. But the latter gave us the (back handed) compliment that they were readable (meaning legible’ possibly. . .). Print Workshop, with Dave and Marilyn, and some other Just Books personnel morphed into Northern Visions, a video-based set-up {I don’t like set up’ but can’t think of the proper’ word} which also runs a radical radio station featuring, among others, PA MagLochlainn, current President of NIGRA. In our Athol Books phase the (largely young) people at Cara-Friend’s Saturday afternoon Drop-in’ found themselves helping to collate GS. It must have been an odd an introduction to the Gay life-style’ their motherSeand pastors almost certainly hadn’t warned them about the dangers of an afternoon’s labouring. NIGRA exchanged Gay Star with Antenne Rose, and Tels Quels, Belgium, Fritt Fram, Norway, Der Andere Weg, Germany, Homophonies, Paris, Seattle Gay News, and Christopher Street, USA, The Body Politic, Canada, Pink Triangle,
New Zealand. There were also, over the years, Quare Times, from Cork and Dublin, Identity, Out and GCN (Gay Community News),
Dublin. We exchanged advertisements with Gay Times,
London, and Gay Scotland. We had good relations with the other GS’, and still have with ScotsGay, and its (former) editor, and proprietor, John Hein. There were also exchanges with the (British) Gay Christian and Gay Humanist groupSeand the Gay Youth Movement’s Gay Youth. GSeand later upstart were distributed to Gay Centres in Cork, Derry, Dublin, Dundalk, Edinburgh, Galway, Glasgow, Limerick, London, Manchester, Monaghan, and New York (among other places). They (especially upstart) were set to and / or exchanged with many groups in Britain, in Aberdeen, Ayr, Carlisle, Dumfries, and
Dundee. And to the ethnic’, health-awarenesSeand religious groups, from the south Asian HIV / AIDS support group Naz, to OutRage and the LCGM (Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement).upstart got help in kind’ (mostly cheap or free printing) from NIGRA (the source of most of the personnel involved) and the Old Museum Arts Centre,
Belfast. The most sustained and fruitful (from our point of view, anyway) was with Unison (the public service union the biggest in the
UK). We are very grateful for a number of years in which we did not have to worry about quite how the journal was to be paid for. It made deadlineSeand production much less problematical than they would have been otherwise.We also got equipment from the BBC’s Children in Need charity on account of our outreach to young Gay women and men. This was in regard to an emphasis on health (mainly AIDS education) and another emphasis on the bullying of school students. There was also help in cash and in kind {is this correct?} from the Red Nose Foundation.

upstart and Gay Star reviewed books from many sourceSeand was on the mailing list of numbers of publishing houses, some of them local (to Belfast or Ireland) and some specialised. They included large imprints e. g. Penguin and Viking, which sent us material of particular interest to Gay women and men to review. As did some now-defunct ‘houses’ like Brilliance BookSeand The Olive Press, GMP (Gay Men’s Press) and Ikon. There were also Athol Books, Blackstaff, Beyond the Pale, of Belfast. And specialised publishers like NALGO (National & Local Government Officers union, now a major section of Unison), NAPO (the National Association of Probation Officers), BASW (the British Association of Social Workers), and the British and the Irish versions of the CTS (Catholic Truth Society). We reviewed material from Junius (the erstwhile Revolutionary Communist Party), and Kelson (the – defunct – Revolutionary Gay Men’s Caucus).

Francis Boulton supplied books, as did AndreDeutsch, and Marion Boyars, the O’Brien Press, Marino, and the Cork UP (University Press – this designation will be used frequently – we list them here: Cambridge UP, Oxford UP, Manchester UP, Texas UP, Chicago UP). Dissident Editions of Ballyculter and the Northern Writers’ Co-operative of Manchester, sent us material as did Touchstone / Simon and Shuster, and Coronet, the Four Courts Press, and the Ulster Historical Foundation.

We ‘reviewed’ material from the NIO (NI Office) and the (UK) Home Office, and from the EU (and ILGA – the International Lesbian and Gay Association, in particular its European Office, in Brussels). And also CHE (the Campaign for Homosexual Equality – Britain (i. e. England and Wales)), the above named trade unionSeand professional associations, the Presbyterian and Anglican Churches. And the various Churches which opposed Gay Rights, mainly the Free PresbyterianSeand Free Methodists. (The ‘mainsteam’ Methodists in Ireland have an enlightened attitude to the Gay community).

We reviewed bookSeand films, from America, including material from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and others. We ‘did’ comics; largely the adventures of Major Power and Spunky, from Eros Comix / Fantagraphic Books, of Seattle. The Major and his close personal friend began their adventures in Belfast’s DV8 magazine and Underground Comix.

There were also travel books from Fodor, and Millivres.

Other publishers, in no particular order were, Cassell, Arrow, Corgi, Pimlico, Sinclair Stevenson, Bodley Head, Bantam, Chatto & Windus, Weidenfeld, Gollancz, Macmillan, (and Gill and Macmillan), Pan, Routledge, Picador, Fount, Fontana, NAL (New American Library) and NEL (New English Library), Hodder & Stroughton.

There was also Allison & Busby, and Amnesty International, Anvil (Tralee, Kerry), Appletree (The Old Potato Station, Belfast. Is this address just too good to be entirely believable?). The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and C4 (Channel 4 – UK), Berg PublisherSeand Berghahn Books, (both ‘Oxon’ along with the UP), Bloodaxe Books, of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Mercier Press, (Cork City), Columba (Kildare), Faber & Faber, David & Charles, and Drumlin Publications (Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim).

There was also Field Day (of, rather ostentatiously, ‘Derry’) in its capacity as a drama company (see below) as well as publisher, and Fortnight Educational Trust, and the Institute of Irish Studies, both Belfast (NI rather than ME). The (US) commercial, HarperCollins, Little, Brown, and McGraw Hill Publishing Ltd., were different from The Women’s Press, Onlywomen Press, and Attic Books (of Dublin), which are feminist. Belfast never quite got a similar book-publishing imprint off the ground, but there were the periodicals Women’s News and the ‘anarcha-feminist’ Gaining Ground. There was also material from the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG), the Scottish Equality Network, and (the all-GB) Stonewall. The Plume, Pluto, Poolbeg, Prowler and de Blackland Press[es] were from different points of the geographical and political compass. Serpent’s Tail, Benedikt Taschen, I B Tauris, and Random House supplied rather different sorts of publication, as did Vacher Dod, Veritas Publications, and Verso, The X PresSeand Zed Books.

***
As well as books, upstart and Gay Star reviewed films, television, theatre, radio and music. We acquired videoSeand DVDs from the BBC (Cymru: Dafydd (a one-off drama); North East England (i. e. Newcastle upon Tyne): Byker Grove; London: Grange Hill; Fremantle Media / Thames Television: The Bill – these were ‘out-take’ from series). There were other programmes from BBCTVNI, and BBC Radio Ulster, and RT (Radio Teilif s ireann). UTV (Independent – Ulster Television) and Cistera Productions gave us material to review, as did Northern Visions, and LakmeProductions (Paula Crickard’s The Happy Gordons).

Patrick James’s documentary Queer and Here was broadcast on Radio Ulster and a play based on Jeff Dudgeon’s experiences in the course of the Strasbourg case, Only A Phase, by Rib Davis was broadcast on Radio4UK.

{We did other radio plays, I recall one by Ashley Pharaoh – of ‘Torchwood’ fame – in one of the single-sheet upstart’s}

Theatre reviews covered the repertory company of Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, Ridiculismus, Dubbeljoint, Field Day, and the groups that performed Martin Lynch’s various plays, he started out with the Turf Lodge Fellowship Community Theatre. There was also the Gantry Players which performed Brian Ervine’s Birth of a Queen, and other of his works. There were visits from the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company), the Abbey Theatre, the (UK) National Theatre, which were reviewed. The Scottish Opera and the Scottish Ballet loomed large in the theatrical life of Northern Ireland in this period. Scottish Ballet toured the region regularly in the 1970Seand ’80s: ‘cuts’ intervened in the ’90s. Other visits were from the one-person (Paul Johnson, Dublin) mandance and the very large San Francisco Ballet, the FeatherstonehaughSeand the Cholmondeleys severally and together were reviewed, as was Diversions (Wales’s Dance Company) and the Flemish Royal Ballet.

Scottish Opera shared review space with Studio Opera, which was forced, by ACNI (pron. ‘acne’?), the Arts Council of NI, into a shotgun wedding with the Belfast Grand Opera Society. The main virtue of the latter was a strong chorus. It was disbanded. The Studio Opera Group (founded 1947) tradition of small-scale productions was abandoned. The unwanted child, ONI (Opera Northern Ireland) has since died of neglect. This probably freed-up money to be spent on publishing even more ‘poetry’ of the sort that has afflicted The Province since the start of The Troubles (called ‘war’ by the hoi polloi).

Music making by the Ulster Orchestra and those of the students in Queens’ and at Jordanstown was reported. As was that of the Guildhall Camarata (an excellent band made up of students from the Derry area, who were studying in London colleges). There were a number of visiting orchestras, one of the best was the student band and choir from University College, Cork, in the early 1980s doing Honegger’s King David oratorio. The Irish Chamber Orchestra and the RT Symphony Orchestra were excellent. The Liverpool Philharmonic, under Libor Pesek was appalling giving sloppy performances of a programme that was cheap and cheerless. The Belfast audience, as ever, gave the visitors a rousing welcome and a standing ovation – we should have thrown (small) coins at them. The (amateur) Studio (Symphony) Orchestra went through a bad patch in the 1980s, but has been pulled together by David Openshaw the timpanist of the Ulster Orchestra, its current conductor. A band attached to St George’s (C of I), High Street, Belfast, gave a performance of Britten’s War Requiem with its own choristerSeand those of St Eugene’s (RC) cathedral in Derry / Londonderry, and St Something, Letterkenny.

Some people volunteered to go to Giro’s Cafe, (and rehearsal room), to report on their Friday night gigs; they have not been heard of since. Andrew Hastings wrote about heavy metal, Alistair Kerr, and Mark McKernon about disco. Martin Hewson wrote an interesting article about Diamanda Galas.

1 Social and political change in Northern Ireland should come about by way of peaceful agitation and argument

2 NIGRA is opposed to political violence – including ‘moral cleansing’ – freelance, paramilitary, and State.

3 NIGRA supports the extension to Northern Ireland of progressive, liberalising law, e. g. the Abortion Act and the Race Relations Act.

The Abortion Act needs improving, the rights of the woman should be strengthened and made more explicit. The ‘conscience’ clause for medical personnel should be dropped; persons with religious objections to this procedure should not be practising in this branch of medicine.

The Race Relations Act should be extended to Northern Ireland as it stands. The Act has been extended, by way of case law, to include groups not at first recognised by Parliament. They include the Travellers, as well as the English ‘ and the Northern Irish.

4 An Incitement to Hatred Act for the whole UK should be introduced. It would protect the sensibilities of all races, ethnic groups, and religions, without diminishing the right of citizens to subject their fellow-citizens to legitimate criticism.

This law should protect sexual and linguistic minorities, and also the disabled.

Current laws on blasphemy should be rescinded.

5 A Bill of Rights for sexual minorities would have the same drawback as similar, general, Bill[s] of Rights: that which was not contained in such a Bill could ‘ and would ‘ be deemed unlawful.

Changing the law by way of an Enabling Act would have much the same effect. It would, also, not necessarily affect laws on inheritance and pension rights.

NIGRA, like the Lesbian and Gay Committee of the erstwhile GLC (Greater London Council), feels that the law should be changed Act by Act, and be rendered gender-neutral.
6 We demand equal rightSeand equal jeopardy before the law.

7 All citizens should have access to the law in all of its aspects, up to Privy Council / European level.

8 The operation of the law should be drastically changed. Our present, adversarial, system wherein advocates hold back information or openly smear plaintiffs (or victims) iSean outrage against justice.

A system like that operation in Scotland, where the object of the exercise in Courts of Law is to ascertain the truth, or at east, the greatest degree of accuracy, should be adopted.

9 All Courts should be open to the public in a meaningful way ‘ many Courts have few seats for the public. Court and police, and other records,should be open to those to whom they refer. Secret files on ordinary citizens should not be kept. The keeping of such files should be illegal.

10 The victims, and their dependants / families, in murder cases should be represented in Court.

11 The ‘Portsmouth Defence’, whereby the (usually appallingly violent) killing of men (and sometimes women), is excused ‘ due to the killer’s disgust at the victim’s (alleged) homosexuality ‘ should be done away with.

12 Objective information about non-heterosexuals in history, culture, and in the contemporary world, should be offered to school students, so that they will acquire a balanced view of sexuality in society.

13 Gay (lesbian, bisexual, gaymale, transsexual, transvestite & c) school students should be respected, and protected from bullying. So, also, should students who are not Gay, but are perceived as such.

14 Whether Gay people make up 2% or 20% of the population, we are entitled to the same aid as other sections of society. Thus, it is not unreasonable to ask the authorities to help in the creation of community centres for our community, as well as for the community in general.

In August, four hundred gays, lesbianSeand their friends sat down for a civic banquet in Belfast‘s City Hall to celebrate gay pride week. It was hosted by the Lord Mayor and paid for by the not-very-angry ratepayers. Speeches were made by Keith Ashe and Sally Young of the Pride 2004 committee. The Lord Mayor’s remarks, peppered with hiSeanti-litter campaigning sentiments, were responded to by Barbary Cook of the busy Belfast group Queer Space whose father had been a previous Lord Mayor and who pointed out she knew the venue, playing there as a child.

Under the headline Unionist claims City Hall gay bash turned into booze-fest rubbished’ one Sunday tabloid (Sunday Life) however tried to raise resentment: A Sinn Fein councillor who attended the first ever civic dinner in Belfast for gaySeand lesbians, last night denied claims that it had descended into a marathon boozing session. Furious unionist members, who boycotted the Gay Pride function last month, claimed that more than 300 bottles of wine were downed, and the glasses left strewn around the City Hall. And they also alleged that derogatory remarks had been shouted about one councillor – DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) member Sammy Wilson – during a speech by Lord Mayor Tom Ekin. But Councillor Eoin O’Broin, who was a guest at the function, in the banqueting hall, said: “I would be amazed if 300 bottles of wine were consumed. I can also say that the only remark I heard during the Lord Mayor’s speech was when he referred to the word ‘tolerance’, and someone said ‘it’s not tolerance anymore – it’s equality’. It was a very successful evening, and one I hope will be repeated”.

Gay Rights activist PA MagLochlainn said: “Some people seem to be getting hot under the collar about nothing. There were around 400 people there and those councillors who did attend went out of their way to show solidarity, and illustrate that attitudes are changing. But there was absolutely no drunkenness, and, while a few glasses may have been left outside the banqueting hall, that was probably smokers, who had to step outside to light up.”

Nobody responded to this story which majored, not on homosexuality but, aSean Irish newspaper perhaps ought not to, on gays’ drink consumption. I did however note on the night that the amount of wine was pleasantly and appropriately generous.

Such a civic dinner waSean occasion the like of which has probably not occurred in any other UK city and was both enjoyable and memorable. It also come before an incredibly successful, and visibly popular, gay pride parade in Belfast where numbers were swelled by threats of disruption from a new group, the Stop the Parade Organisation Christian Coalition Against Perverted Pride Marches who boasted a modish website but whose turnout on the day was paltry. They hardly outnumbered the traditional dozen Free Presbyterian protesters.

Under the headline SODOMITES HAVE HAD THEIR DAY they promised to hold a vociferous protest against the so-called Gay Pride’ parade which has scandalously been allowed to proceed through Belfast city centre They continued This demo will be the first in a series against the proliferation of these revolting spectacles across the UK. Christian scriptures declare sodomy and homosexuality to be sinful, abominable and perverse. We believe the vast majority of public opinion to be with us in our campaign against these disgusting displays of heinous perversionSeand we will strive to make the majority’s voice heard above the shrieks of the politically correct luvvies’ and politicians who pander to the homosexual micro-minority’s every whim. One’s major concern about this new slightly modish group is if they can link up with ultra-right political partieSeand thereby influence and organise loyalist youths who are conspicuously leaderless.

Despite generally good news, the media only a month before had been taken up with the trial of the murderers of 30-year old Ian Flanagan and increasing reports of attacks on gay people in Londonderry. Ian had been beaten with a wheel brace, then stabbed with a knife, his injuries being described by the pathologist as similar to those of a car crash victim.

That murder occurred in September 2002 in Barnett’s Park and was the latest in a long line of cruising and cottaging murders in Belfast – not unlike many in England. It was not remarkable for the high level of violence used, that is standard in the killing of gay men everywhere, but it was for the youth of the major assailant who was only fourteen.

Thankfully the prosecution in fear of the Portsmouth‘ defence ( he looked at me in a queer way so I stabbed him repeatedly), declined to consider reducing the charge to manslaughter was once standard. It had been said that Ian made advances to the accused. However such a defence would not have been easy as the younger murderer, Trevor Peel, admitted in the witness box to going equipped with a knife for a bit of queer bashing. Why he was put in the box iSeanyone’s guess but apparently even in jail he thought he would not be found guilty. Perhaps our old judicial tradition of gays’ killers getting suspended sentences gave him false confidence.

Interestingly, the judge Mr Justice Coghlin told the accused when sentencing them to 13 and 14 years in prison, that he had no doubt both set out to target a member of the gay community, confident in the belief that the social vulnerability of your victim would enable you to carry out your queer bashing’ expedition without any real risk. He described it as a crime which degenerated from despicable in its inception to becoming atrocious in its consummation remarking also observing both killers were extremely streetwise as a consequence of disrupted social and family backgrounds.

Ian’s father Samuel, a strict Plymouth Brethren, forgave his son’s killers on their conviction. Previously the family had zealously emphasised Ian’s recent engagement. In a lengthy Belfast Telegraph interview, Samuel alluded only once to his son’s gay aspect, the key paragraph reading: For the Flanagans, no pain could compare with the sudden, brutal loss of Ian. But within hours there waSeanother perplexing, difficult issue to deal with. Detectives informed them Ian's body had been found in an area used by homosexuals. Further, a possible gay link would form part of their investigation and they would be briefing the press accordingly. Inevitably, within days, the association had seeped into the public consciousness, where it remains to this day. The Flanagans are realists. Who knows the secrets of the human heart, reasons Samuel but it is genuinely not a side to their son they ever so much as glimpsed and they cannot help but remain sceptical. So his murder was motiveless. Nonetheless one estranged member of the family thanked NIGRA for its efforts to help track down the murderers.

This waSean easy crime to solve, with video evidence of the killers' movements available in the area. One, several months later, the cottaging killing of Warren (or Aaron) McCauley in Belfast, was not to be solved. He was found in an alley just 30 yards from the Church Lane toilets at 8 a.m. on 3 December 2002. He died two days later without regaining consciousness. His injuries consisted of a blow to the side of the head and another to the throat. These were the injuries that led to a fractured skull which eventually killed him. It is estimated that had he been found within twenty minutes he might have survived, otherwise he was doomed. He also had broken ribs on both sides of his chest.

As his head injuries were inflicted by an assailant facing him, Aaron was plainly not surprised by his killer. This led to the view that he had probably followed (or been followed out by) someone he had come across in the toilet, and was lured to his death. Robbery was not an obvious motive as, when discovered, he still had financial documents, including credit cards, and his mobile phone on his person.

The police believe he was attacked the evening before. They had video shots of him, over several hours, walking around the city centre while a shop assistant going home shortly after 9 p.m. heard a man moaning in the alley but thought it was a drunk. Arrests were made but no charges brought.

Meanwhile in Northern Ireland‘s second Maiden’ city, attacks on gays are estimated to have doubled to thirty in the year to March 2004. They have ranged in seriousness from smearing excrement on windows, to beatings, threats from one paramilitary group (denied by the UDA), and the stabbing of a 19-year old, which resulted in someone being charged with attempted murder. There has been one conviction for the continued harassment of a young gay man. The Rainbow Project in Derry has also been named on Combat 18′s website.

Neither Rainbow nor the police feel these are organised attacks rather random. What is apparent is that they have become more viciouSeand it is feared that there will, as in Belfast, be a murder if something radical is not done. As a result of the high profile on such homophobia in Derry considerable support has been offered by politicians including the Sinn Fein Mayor, community activists, and the Church of Ireland Bishop. Rainbow says it is extremely concerned at the increase in attacks, and particularly their viciousness. It aims to hold a major conference in the city focussing on homophobia.

So why has there been so much homophobic hatred in this city of 100,000 people? If it can be explained, the fact that the population is significantly younger than elsewhere in Northern Ireland may have something to do with it, as will have post-war repercussions. Derry was the site of rioting by young males for two decades. There have also been a long series of aimless attacks at night spots that frequently include ear mutilation. I can instance one such attack on my nephew which was ascribed to him being too prosperouSeand good looking.

If there is more violence in Northern Ireland, it could be said to be because the place is backward or by virtue of the interlinked reason, that after 30 years of war, when killing was almost sanctified, it is no wonder that what might in other places be an serious assault turns into a murder. Violence here has fewer of the social curbs that other British cities have, although even across the water the controls seem to be slackening.

The fact that gaySeand ethnic minorities in Belfast are becoming more visible and more numerous has meant that resentment and attacks upon them are consequently greater. And this even with Northern Ireland being foolishly exempted from the policy of asylum seeker dispersal. The proportion of gays so attacked may however be statistically no bigger than before. No great comfort if you are attacked, but it has to be pointed out to avoid panic setting in and emigration soaring.

The link between greater visibility and greater violence may also be the consequence of easier access to alcohol as well as war psychosis. We have certainly had more than our fair share of domestic’ killings many of them horrifying in their brutality. But is it the working through of the erosion of normal values as occurred in and after the ending of the 1939-45 war when a huge increase in murders was noted?

Even Sinn Fein is aware there is no control to be had, even by paramilitaries, over underclass, disaffected Catholic youth, fuelled by cheap drink, glue and ever-stronger cannabis. The Protestant underclass is also severely stressed, being weakened politically and psychologically. Like frontiers people anywhere they are susceptible to extreme responses.

Action is needed but one suggested solution, the staking out of cruising areas by the police createSeanother difficulty. How do you avoid arresting the cruisers who break the law?

There have been a number of gay-on-gay killings here recently which suggests the loss of self-control is also to be found within the gay community. Nobody is exempt but the truth of the matter is that Belfast gay scene is welcoming, attractive and expanding, despite local difficulties.

Jeffrey Dudgeon

Author of Roger Casement: The Black Diaries, and Treasurer of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA)

August 2004

[Since this article was written, the Home Office haSeannounced it is dropping Clause 74 and to cries of concern from Stonewall and Martin Bowley QC who served on the working group, said it will be amending the outraging public decency' law. No details of how in the Bill or otherwise - or precisely with what, have been given.21 April 2003.

In the event the government accepted the clause making cottaging a specific offence.]

The Sexual Offences Bill which has just started its passage in the House of Lords, will probably be the most important gay law reform in the past thirty years. Despite all the fuss over the age of consent, it has been convictions for gross indecency, buggery and public indecency that, over decades, have brought hundreds of gay men into court (like Oscar Wilde), and exacted numberless toll of suicides, lost jobs, wrecked marriages, and mental breakdowns.

I instance one horrifying suicide here in Northern Ireland when an Anglican clergyman, arrested for an alleged offence in a toilet, took half his head off with a shotgun, and finding himself still alive and running around, threw himself down a well. Latterly, if Ron Davies MP had not so feared press exposure as a sex criminal he could have reported his car stolen on Clapham Common to the police instead of covering up.

All gay-specific crimes will be scrapped in England and Wales when this new gender-neutral law commences. The discussion over the possible grading of rape (e.g. creating the offence of date rape), and the definition of consent, continues in the Lords, which should interest both gaySeand lesbians concerned to see that the law becomes more effective.

The Bill certainly won’t make cottaging legal but, as it currently stands, will permit some outdoor cruising. Clause 74 (sexual activity, in public) presently reads that an offence occurs, if in a public place, someone knows that, or is reckless as to whether during sexual activity someone other than a person he knows to be a willing observer will see any part of him or of another participant.

The concept of non-recklessness will therefore be a permitted defence or mitigation, which police will have to take into account. The drafting of clause 74 is still open but the government has indicated it will reconsider its phrasing, since peers have expressed concern that it might legalise sex in toilets, while The Sun has started a campaign to prevent it making bonking in your back garden’ also a crime.

Whether the government will support any of the more restrictive amendments, that have now been tabled, remains to be seen. None of their own has appeared on the Order Paper (you can check with the House of Lords website). I understand Stonewall is concerned with this issue, but they will not reveal what their intentions are, nor the discussions they are having with the Home Office (if any), so we must rely on their wisdom and good sense as our gay trade union to get this one right. [They didn't] It strikes me, nonetheless, that what in clause 74 constitutes a private place – currently only a dwelling – could be changed to include other inaccessible structures e.g. a closed office. Or the words could be reversed to say sex is illegal in a public place’ leaving that phrase undefined.

Cruising like dreadlocks, iSean ethnic characteristic of gay men. No matter how many gay bars open, the facility for males to have sex with one another at the drop of a hat, makes cruising a perpetual fact. The phrasing of clause 74 therefore will mean, over decades, a large difference in the number of prosecutions of gay men. That matters a great deal.

Criminal law has been devolved to Scotland but not yet to Northern Ireland. Despite, since the Good Friday Agreement, a panoply of gay equality lawSeand a human rights commission, we were to be left out. Northern Ireland, and this writer, have now experienced three key precedents, including a European Court of Human Rights judgment in 1981. Kate Hoey MP’s successful (and contested) amendment in 1994 to include us in the first age of consent reduction (to 18), and Mo Mowlam’s promise that we would be included in the second, later government measure equalising the age. She kept her promise. Yet a few years on, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) still failed to take us into account.

The Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association’s (NIGRA) campaigning machine cranked up once again and we circularised 1,300 peerSeand MPs not an easy or swift task for a small group. Replies came flooding in, mostly, sadly, from supporters not able or willing to propose amendments themselves, a very few antagonists, and many like Chris Smith MP who put heavy pressure on the NIO Ministers. Baroness Noakes has asked key parliamentary questions, as did Lord Beaumont of Whitley, who tabled a very welcome series of amendments we wrote. (He also assisted NIGRA twenty-five years ago!).

Locally, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Ken Maginnis, the former Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP) advised NIGRA saying, I do not believe that human rights in any way necessitate a commitment to unnatural and obscene practices. Certainly I was opposed to the reduction of the age of consent and the legalising of other filthy practiceSeand will so continue.

Nevertheless, the government caved in at speed. Northern Ireland, it was now proposed, would be further included in the Bill. Gay crimes would also be targeted we were told. On 1 April, during the Bill’s committee stage, Lord Falconer promised, as regards the province, to deal with certain inequalities that have been identified.

NIGRA is particularly keen that the offence of indecent behaviour’ which is frequently used here against solo cottagerSeand cruisers (gross indecency being the charge when more than one person is a participant) is also scrapped, and that the not being reckless’ defence is therefore available should such charges be considered. And we will press home our amendments on those other missing aspects, such as the abominable’ crime of buggery which is not yet for the chop in Northern Ireland, as straights can be guilty of it. We need all the support we can get in these areas when the committee stage resumes in May – 100 of the Bill’s 128 clauses remain to be dealt with.

Readers will be interested to learn that Northern Ireland is also being provided with three new crimes, courtesy of the Bill. Despite our fascination with death, necrophilia is only now to hit the local statute book by way of clause 73 (sexual penetration of a corpse). Exemption from conviction is provided for morticians, and those unfortunates who, in the words of the Bill’s explanatory notes, penetrate any part of a dead body fully believing the person to be alive, but who is in fact dead, or unexpectedly dies during intercourse. Alongside interference with human remains, come new offences of bestiality (intercourse with an animal) and voyeurism (for sexual gratification). No local rights body however spoke up for sheep shaggers et al, adding that they do not address UK legislation.

The part of the Bill which involves rape and non-consensual buggery is meant now to be the subject of a NIO review which should ensure a continued low rate of conviction for many more years for rapists but which will provide continued employment for those in the consultation and rights industries.

Jeffrey Dudgeon (successful Strasbourg plaintiff 1981, and author of the recently published book – Roger Casement: The Black Diaries)

56 Mount Prospect Park
Belfast
BT9 7BG

Tel 028 90664111

jeffreydudgeon@hotmail.com

A Further Submission by NIGRA (Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association) in Response to the Northern Ireland Department of Health’s Suicide Strategy Consultation Paper

Self-Inflicted Fatalities in the Gay Community, the Role of the Coroner and the Reliability of Statistics

Dear Mr Bell,

In a letter of 11 July 2006, Mr J L Leckey, Senior Coroner for Northern Ireland stated to the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) that where all the evidence points to the death being suicide my practice is to seek the views of the family as to whether they would wish an inquest to be held. In the great majority of instances the family request that the death is registered without an inquest being held.

On 27 July 2006, in response to a NIGRA request for clarification he added When an inquest is not held in relation to a suicidal death the Registrar of Deaths is notified of the medical cause of death only and that is what appears on the record.

As you know, from our earlier submission, gay organisations are concerned that families have a status superior to other properly interested parties in relation to inquests. It would now seem they have a predominant role when it comes to a decision about whether to hold an inquest in any particular suicide case.

NIGRA would want this effective veto power granted to families or family members in the case of suicides to end and be replaced by a coroner’s decision being taken in the round with other parties, if relevant, having an equal role in the decision making process. If the purpose of inquests is, amongst other things, to satisfy the proper public interest in knowing how a particular individual died it seems inappropriate to give one section of the public the effective power to prevent an inquest being held especially when it appears that power is being exercised in the great majority of [such] cases.

This veto also prevents patterns of suicidal behaviour being noticed, making analysiSeand remedial action that much more difficult. This would apply for example in relation to the Bushmills suicide in January 2006 which may have been connected to a police cottaging investigation in Coleraine, and a suicide in April 2006 associated with a similar investigation by Lisburn police. In other words, if these deaths did in fact occur as a consequence of bad police practice or discriminatory procedures there is no way this can be established, and appropriate action to prevent similar events will not be enabled.

In his second letter, Mr Leckey reveals that a very large number of suicides not followed by an inquest will not be recorded in any such detectable way on the death certificate. This means that the current statistics on suicides must be a severe underestimate. Again this seems almost perverse in that the purpose of inquestSeand or identifiable text on death certificates is to enable the public to know what is happening. Instead we seem, in the case of suicide, to have a pointless system designed to prevent this.

We believe that these two deaths this year connected to separate police investigations might have been avoided. In order to minimise the numbers of such deaths in the future we ask that the final version of your suicide strategy recommends that inquests into likely suicides be held where any party so desires, and that death certificate text, where there is no inquest, records that it is the coroner’s opinion that death was by suicide.

We would also request a recommendation that if a coroner establishes that failings in police practice or procedure may have been a factor in the death by suicide, the case file should be passed to the Police Ombudsman for investigation.

Off and on in the 1970Seand 80s, the Europa’s Whip and Saddle bar in Great Victoria Street was the city’s only gay venue. Despite, at times being the only customers in such a bombed hotel, we were never entirely welcome and were ultimately driven out, At one point in the 1970s NIGRA mounted a picket because of a member being barred for some minor indiscretion like kissing.

Due to Kieran H., a gay staffer’s efforts, the Crow’s Nest in Skipper Street then became a gay bar with a small disco from c. 1986. After several makeovers, it changed its name to the Custom House in 2002 and is re-invigorated as a gay bar hoisting Men of the North events on alternate Fridays. It returned to the Crow’s Nest title later after another makeover.

The Carpenter Club in Long Lane (proprietors Richard Hodgson, Jeff Dudgeon, and NIGRA in a limited partnership) waSean extensive, unlicensed disco and coffee bar on two floors operating from the early to the mid 1980s. Cara-Friend had offices upstairs. It was ultimately compulsorily purchased by the DOE to make way for the currently renamed Writers’ (formerly Skinhead) Square. The Carpenter Club though gradually successful was vulnerable to any premises like a hotel on the skids which had a drinks licence. Such licences were prohibitively expensive. Cara-Friend moved to new premises at Cathedral Buildings in Lower Donegall Street where Lesbian Line also has roomSeand GL YNI and NIGRA meet. Both C-F and Queer Space have run busy Saturday drop-ins at Cathedral Buildings the former having had previous rooms in Botanic Avenue and Eglantine Avenue.

The Orpheus Bar/Disco in York Street had a successful three-year existence under the proprietorship of Ian Rosbotham in the mid-1980s, despite the rampant damp, and a short afterlife once renovated.

The Dunbar Arms in Dunbar Link was firebombed by the INLA with drag queen Mae West being nearly singed to death. After rebuilding, it became the Parliament Bar, run by two straight guys, Martin Ramsay and Brendan, continuing as a gay venue with an upstairs disco, from the 1990s until 2003 when it abandoned the gay market.

Cruising areas have been marred by murder – Anthony McCleave in Oxford Street, Belfast in the 1970Seand Ian Flanagan in Barnett’s Park in 2002. There have been others.

One nighters have been operated since the mid 1980s in the Midland Hotel (Saturdays), the Limelight (Mondays), the Venue, White’s Tavern (Wednesdays) and Milk (Mondays).

The Kremlin, an extensive, gay-owned (by Andre Graham and Seamus Sweeney) bar and disco(s) in Upper Donegall Street after opening in March 1999 has become the dominant gay venue in the city, regularly enhancing its facilities. Most recently they have brought property in nearby Union Street to house the men’s health, Rainbow Project (formerly in Church Lane) and Belfast’s first ever gay sauna, the Garage, in whose tropical climate romance blossoms. Sex in saunas, that is sex with more than two males present, was legalized in 2003 thanks to NIGRA’s successful campaign to have Northern Ireland included in the Sexual Offences Bill’s abolition of the crimes of gross indecency and buggery.

The latest development in the creation of a gay village in Belfast is the opening of the up market Union Street pub which is drawing out those gays who prefer less disco noise and tobacco smoke in their entertainment. The only cloud on the new village’s horizon is cyber chat and cyber cruising which are ever more popular night and day.