Maman Poulet

Manual beseeches his lady lesbian readers to go to Madrid and report back to him on the lesbian festival taking place there. Much as I would love to be in Madrid I am very happy next weekend to be enjoying the company of many lesbians in Cork for the Cork Women’s Weekend. This fine event has been running for over 20 years, and has football, workshops, golf, a gig or two, poetry and a table quiz – and many beautiful women – note I use the term women and not ladies!

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For the election you’ll find me ‘hanging out’ at Irishelection.com. I’ll still be blogging here though!

My Link blog which you will find here is a list of items I have read today and everyday and have found interesting – it’ll be a mishmash of election and political and queer stuff over the next few weeks. Feel free to see what I’m reading online. I’m loving google reader at the moment and the way in which I can keep up with news headlines, photos, blog posts and even comments to posts.

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I can’t help but think that if this poor guy was able bodied someone would have checked a bit harder to make sure he was really dead…now I’ve read that again and that sounds like I mean that they could have made sure he did not live – but hey they sent him to the morgue. And he would not be the first person with a disability to die in an acute hospital due to neglect. Hope he’s happy whereever he is and bet he’ll be going to Beaumont the next time.

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This is a guy I’d like to have a pint with.  He mentions the S word and you know he means it and that he has used it before for years and is no parachute candidate.  Eric has also had a long standing commitment to lesbian and gay equality and is not just a newcomer to seeking the lesbian and gay vote.

Meanwhile Margaret has been staring at the ceiling on her trolley and I’m glad the heart monitor was still beeping at the end of it all – it’s an excellent start to video ad’s without candidates on the issues from the parties.  I’m looking forward to the next one!

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Lots of coverage for this new initiative launched yesterday outside Leinster House. I note that the site has a blog and a heavy concentration on civil union issues and ‘how your politician voted’ in the recent private members debate on the Labour Party’s Civil Union Bill.

I’ll give lots of link love to any reader of the site that finds the word lesbian – for these boys the gay vote seems genderless.

This idea promises much and I hope to see analysis of party manifestos on issues other than the recognition of same sex unions.

Lesbians and gay men have concerns about our/their sexuality and how it interacts with health, education, policing, family rights, foreign affairs, employment, disability, ethnicity and social services. I’m not one of those people who says I’m lesbian but that’s only part of me – in fact

• I’m a lesbian and I want my health service to recognise that fact and stop asking me about contraception and presuming that I am straight. I want the health care staff who treat me to have training in lesbian health issues, to know I am more at risk of certain diseases due to homophobia and healthcare and not to presume that because I’m a lesbian I’m not at risk of other illnesses either.
• I’m a lesbian and I’m fed up hearing about young lesbians and gay men being bullied in school and want a clear policy on it in every school in the country whatever the religious ethos.
• I’m a lesbian and I want to know that all members of An Garda Siochana have been trained in lesbian and gay awareness not just a few special ones. and that if I have a problem with how I am treated by the Gardai that I have recourse to action, advocacy and support.
• I’m a lesbian and I want to know the Irish Government will not aid or support foreign governments or initiatives that sponsor hatred and murder of their lesbian and gay citizens.
• I’m a lesbian and I want to know that the Irish Government will not aid or support Irish based organisations that do not fully include women in their work and not just for window dressing.
• I’m a lesbian and I would like to see more support available to lesbians and gay men who are discriminated in work and the receipt of goods and services – we know it happens but the numbers who feel able to take cases are too low.
• I’m a lesbian and I’d like to see the 1989 Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act reviewed so that a case could actually be taken under the law and that gay bashing is also made a hate crime.
• I’m a lesbian and I recognise that other lesbians and gay men have other identities also, due to their ethnicity, family status, social status, disability, gender, geographic location, home ownership status, age, education, and religious background. My vote will go to politicians who recognise this too.

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Read all about Bill O’Reilly’s recent appearance on the Late Late Show and what he said about Media Matters and what a load of rubbish it was. Pat Kenny let him off a bit easy but what’s new in that!

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I see Richard Delevan is hanging out with the lads from Opus Dei tomorrow night. Now you might not know it was Opus Dei that are behind the meeting on the vexed (yawn) question of ‘Blogging and traditional media: do the same standards of professional integrity apply? ’. A little closer examination of the Cleraun Centre’s website gives us the background and here is the blurb on their media forum.

I’m not sure how or who they told about the event in terms of getting bloggers to turn up. Let’s face it this lesbian blogger was not going to find out about it too easily. Maybe Blurred Keys (where I found out about the event) is attending it? Any other bloggers going?

I look forward to the reports of the blogger bashing, oh and the wonderful attempts at transparency and openess of the organisation hosting the event.

The forum is a follow up to a paper presented by Sarah Carey at the centre last year. I can’t find Sarah’s report on her visit there last year but you can read her paper here.

Update: Simon gives his tuppenceworth.

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Dominic Hannigan gets two new best friends in Meath…Love it! So AJ and Tommy match that!

* Meath East is the most blogged/vlogged constituency by candidates so far in Ireland – it’s been fun so far, it can only get better!

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That’s what I learnt at Barcamp in Dublin today. Even if Eoin wasn’t a great speaker and expert on the law I’d still say he is a lovely man because if I said he wasn’t and it was a lie then I would be in trouble.

See – I now know a bit more about defamation, contempt, copyright, threats, hate speech, etc. Thanks Eoin for a great presentation on the law and blogging.

Bar Camp was great, I got to meet Karlin who I had not seen in 12 years! (yes I think it really is that long!) Someone has offered to make my blog a bit prettier by the mere installation of a template (oh the shame and even worse Eoghan seems to be good at what he does for a living!) Darren Barefoot of Capulet Communications did a talk on social media for corporates and for a few others who didn’t know their stuff from adam (or eve). There was a plenary panel which turned out to be all about blogging and social media and was full of discussions that I knew something about given my reading of other tech and social media blogs.

I made a pitch for the The Day of the Count – a major event (and reason for a pint) coming to the blogosphere near you… If anyone is interested in knowing more or following up on it leave a comment or email me! I’ll be announcing more soon about the date (once a man who used to wear an anorak and now has two grand kids with the hippest (daftest) names around makes his mind up!)

Well done and thanks to the organisers on the event and the participants for doing their barcampy type thing.

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• Thanks to the Guardian News Blog for their simple guide to the French Election. Time to get the burgundy and brie out for Sunday Night in front of the telly dragging up my aul French!
• The Zimmers do the Who….The single is being released next month. The programme which inspired the music goes out in May – they even have a myspace page. Rock on…
• Bertie call the election will ya? The candidates are tired out but Ciaran is getting to see some lovely houses!!! His campaign manager will have him on leash soon though!
• Lots of people in lots of places are not too keen on having gay people in their neighbourhood. Since reading this all I can think about is Sesame Street – so here is a  thank goddess it’s Friday Moment for you all!

Happy weekend!!!

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