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.