Irish Central report that attempts at a compromise were sought by officials in Aras an Uachtarain who sought to have the President participate in a march which is inclusive of Irish LGBT participation which takes place the previous week in Queens. However this parade will take place some time before the parade in Manhatten and the President could not remain in the city for that length of time.

So President McAleese is not to participate and it seems the bigots AOH are going to ask an Archbishop instead. (Interview with Niall O’Dowd on News at One here (realplayer) ).

(History Note – Lesbians and Gay men marched in parades throughout Ireland in the 1990′s and were welcomed by organisers and did so in solidarity with the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organisation in New York. )

This morning while discussing Peter Robinson’s statement on his wife’s affair, Pat speculated that some aggrieved gay person was out to get Iris for her remarks on homosexuality and hence why the story was broken. Himself and Eamon Mallie then went on to talk about the hatred for Iris from gays and others. Cough, her own ire for us  didn’t get much of a look in. Lovely woman seemingly if very unpopular everywhere.

I’m still laughing here at the thoughts of a gay man being so conniving – you give the gays far too much credit Pat? And of course it’s a convenient air time filler while you and everyone else wait for the Spotlight programme to go ahead. It wasn’t a gay man that Iris was having an affair with, and allegedly getting people to give money to was it?

Update:

11.15 Pat returns to ‘the gays’ and Iris and interiews Samuel Marr about his documentary, Mise an tUafás, trying to interview Iris Robinson about her comments about homosexuality. Pat wonders if ‘the gays’ are ‘too touchy’ on the subject.

I’ve not seen it and it would not be on my list of films to see this year. Milk and indeed the films shown during GAZE would be more my thing. I never even thought of Bruno as a film of gay interest despite the constant ads and features on the television recently – so have you seen it and what do you think? (Maman Poulet is a pop culture following failure obviously – Go read Glitzfrau for some more interesting pre-seeing the movie thoughts!)

CNN covered the issue of the gay community and Bruno over the weekend.

You may have heard that Iceland is bankrupt, has had riots recently and lost it’s Prime Minister a few days ago after he resigned. Ms. Sigurdaróttir is a popular politician (a rare thing thing one must admit) and has escaped the brunt of the ire of Iceland’s population (approx:318,000) in the recent turmoil.

According to an opinion poll undertaken by Capacent Gallup in December 2008, Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir is the most popular minister—73 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with her work. Sigurdardóttir is also the only minister whose popularity had increased compared to a similar poll undertaken in December 2007.

Andrew Sullivan thinks that this is the second worst job in the world. I’m wondering what the first is and if it’s six months away for a man from Offaly.

I am also thinking about the reason lesbians and gay men end up getting the hard jobs or finding it hard to get certain jobs in less difficult times? The fostering of children no-one else will being one of the other situations one sees lesbians and gays stepping in.

Anyway good luck to Johanna! May the force be with you as you go where no lesbian or gay man has gone before.

(h/t the wonderful Joe My God)

Update – Iris Erlingsdottir writes about Ms. Sigurdardóttir in The Huffington Post.

Which part of the word CIVIL do they not understand? (Never mind the word partnership…)

If God is about Love why do they hate us so much (or patronise us by saying love the sinner, hate the sin). They don’t mention the words lesbian or gay either, see that – they think they are clever!

(Many thanks to Damien (!) for the fluffy link that led me to this nugget. Nothing but eclectic the work of the Mulleymeister! More Donna Summer or Kylie needed!)

All this just in time for Conor’s appearance on the Late Late Show. Good luck to Conor, his brother and his parents, yes the whole family – they’ll be able to speak with some authority on the matter unlike the men in the mitres.

Civil Partnership Bill 2008
Bishops discussed the Civil Partnership Bill 2008, which was published in June by the Department of Justice, and in particular the Constitutional obligation on the Government to guard the institution of marriage with special care (Art. 41.3.1). Bishops highlighted the benefits which derive from marriage between a man and woman as the fundamental unit of society.

Bishops restated that marriage exists so that spouses may grow in mutual love and by generosity of their love, bring children into the world and serve life fully. As a faithful, exclusive and lifelong union between one man and one woman, marriage is both a relationship of persons and the fundamental unit upon which society is built.

Our recognition of this unique status is further deepened by our Christian understanding that love of husband and wife mirrors Christ’s abiding love for the Church.

The Irish Constitution rightly acknowledges the unique status of marriage and why it is appropriate for Government to support that status with special measures, including special measures in taxation and social welfare.

God, who is love, is the author of marriage. This authorship includes the natural complementarity of man and woman through which the union of spouses is deepened and the gift of new life is made possible.

Indicating that a further and more detailed statement on the Civil Partnership Bill would follow at a later date, Bishops revisited their submission to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Family in February 2005, which concluded:

“This special status of marriage does not prevent just and appropriate measures being taken in relation to the diversity of other forms of dependent relationship which exist in society. It may, in certain circumstances, be in the public interest to provide legal protection to the social, fiscal and inheritance entitlements of persons who support caring relationships which generate dependency, provided always that these relationships are recognised as being qualitatively different from marriage and that their acceptance does not dilute the uniqueness of marriage. However, it would seem discriminatory to confine this protection to those in sexual relationships and thereby exclude from protection the interests of siblings and other non-sexually involved cohabitees. Moreover, the creation of a category of ‘marriage like’ relationships which would enjoy special rights and protections would seem to contradict in spirit, if not in law, the pledge in Article 41.3.1 to guard with special care the institution of marriage. In the case of those who would in any event be free to marry, any scheme which confers on them many of the advantages of legal marriage, might be judged to be an incentive not to marry and to have devalued the institution of marriage.�

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According to the Globe today Canadian lesbians and gay men are figuring out that marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and is gendering gay relationships and removing the sexual orientation bit that differed us from the rest all due to the legacy of the institution.

In other words, people assume that one plays the role of husband and the other plays wife. While this gendered idea of marriage is clearly a projection from people in the straight world, gay and lesbian couples acknowledge that the role each plays is a point of discussion in their relationships.

While I’m away I bet Michael Lynn (known as Michelin man these days seemingly) will be found, charged with something…anything!!! And brought back to the country just to spite me. Maybe the people so far unnamed in the press who assisted him in misleading clients, banks and others will finally be the focus of some mainstream media activity.

Ironic that Michael is flitting between Portugal and Bulgaria so much these days – Portugal where the deal was done (sort of) on the Lisbon Treaty and Bulgaria one of the newest EU members where one can still get away with building rubbish and pulling the wool over buyers eyes, all the time having a great party! I wonder which invite lists Michael gets to remain on these days?

So for the next two weeks I’ll be bombing up and down an Andalucian mountain in a rented mothership (extreme scootering) going for Tapas and drinking a bit of rioja and reading books – not a laptop or a wifi connection in site. Scary!!!

Hasta Luego!

“The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives.”

(Audre Lorde – Poetry Is Not A Luxury)

The time has (more than) come to reframe the narrow terms of the marriage debate in Ireland.

And so to Marie Mulholland’s critique of the current campaign for same sex marriage here.

The uninterrogated pursuit of marriage to the exclusion of any other regularisation of family forms and partnerships has left the campaign open to allegations of ‘mé feinism’ as overheard recently in one discussion. Inevitably, it has led to a surge in the adoption of at best naïve and at worst reactionary politics and conservative values in the rush to support gay marriage. Perhaps, it is timely to remember the words of Audre Lorde, ‘the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house.’

Read the full essay at Irish Left Review.

Alongside her is Louis Walsh who @lexia is sure has been nobbled by the Lord Grecian 2000. Also there is Dana of whom many a drag queen has murdered Alll Kinds of Everything.

First song is also queerly related and then we move onto Dustin. The Euro Duck. Lots of booing and laughing and banter.

How stuck were the judges in getting the songs this year – song 3 from Maya from Slovenia is horrific…Marija has a great sense of humour! Dana welcomes the singer to Ireland – eh what’s that got to do with it?

19.29 NTL Digibox pops up a reminder that Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Show is about to start. Do I stay or do I go now?

19.31 I press cancel and decide I can stick with this for another 30 minutes surely?? This time next week we’ll be at the blog awards…

We’re rattling along here now with song 4 – Leona Daly with great eye shadow looks lie one of those guest bands that you’d see on Tubridy – and we get to see rather too much of the roof of her mouth…hmmmm. And now her legs… Now for the judges – Marija – she thinks the short dress is the only thing to comment about it. Dana didn’t like the heels…’and put an inch on the dress’. Marija was distracted for different reasons Dana and needs a drink to calm down but maybe Dana didn’t get that!.

Feel this love in my heart pines Liam from Ballina in song 5…strangely reminiscent of Michael Lynn for some reason. Dana thinks he is too young, Louis does his usual ‘yer great’…Marija thinks the song is not good but the singer is great – he has a great smile! Ah that’ll get him far then. Further than Serbia hopefully for him.

Another Mayo man now for song 6 – Marc Roberts performing chances – do you really think his mother christened him Marc or is is a stage ‘c’??? He looks like a younger Mel Gibson which for Maman Poulet is not a good thing. He also is off key within seconds…jesus…Song ends abruptly but not soon enough! Oh I want to see what happened in rehearsals now after what Louis and Marija said. Album track says Dana – oh you are too kind….

19.50 THE LINES ARE NOW OPEN - Someone find me a lovely butch lesbian (yeah Marija will more than do!) to fan me down in my excitement…

Stand by for the hordes voting for the bird…followed by Donal Skehan who was song number 1 – very eurovisiony really. No Louis (e) Ray did not call Marija a man. Oh she’s going to sing…YAY…

Ok Marija needs a tailor…and some backing singers or a band but RTE did all this on the cheap… Cue young wans coming out all over the country by pointing out to their mammies that that is a woman.

Right so I’m off for my dinner and I’ll be back at 9.45 for the results. Can you stand the wait?

Update. - Squid is also liveblogging this live from Limerick (love the developing story banner – very TMZ! Also taking to the blog tonight is Best of Both Worlds.

Readers of MP will know I have been vocal on the issue of the Green Party policy in government regarding same sex partnership, particularly their response to the Labour Party Civil Union Bill. The meeting was held in Government Buildings yesterday evening.

In attendance were representatives from LGBT groups, individuals and commentators. I was invited because of my commentary on the issue of late on this blog and elsewhere. I have also experience on the issue from the perspective of providing online resources and support to lesbian and bisexual women in Ireland.

The Green Party were represented by John Gormley, T.D, Ciaran Cuffe, T.D., Senator Dan Boyle, Roderic O’Gorman and several party and private office officials. The meeting was well chaired by Dan Boyle and I think the phrase full and frank exchange of views could be attributed in a more positive sense of the term

After introductions from the Green Party on their history of policy on the matter of legislating for same sex partnerships and discussing the nature of the discussions on the forthcoming bill promised by the Minister for Justice, the discussion was opened to the floor.

The heads of the bill are due for publication in March. The Green Party (led by Roderic O’Gorman) have been meeting with Departmental officials to discuss the bill and will continue to do so. There seems to be a twin track approach – in terms of party members and party policy and then the efforts and inputs of ministers at and around the Cabinet.
The following clarifications were made by the Green Party representatives regarding the forthcoming bill and I think these are important to highlight.

• The legislation will provide for a scheme which will be regulated in the same way as other significant life events – i.e. through the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

• It will provide for Civil Partnerships for same sex conjugal relationships, not elderly brothers or friends who have lived together for years.

• There will also be provision for a scheme of dealing with those relationships which are not currently or subsequently recognised through marriage or a civil partnership – particularly in terms of dissolution/ending of those relationships (through break up or death etc.)

The issues of children’s rights and parental rights are the most difficult in terms of the negotiations. More visibility of lesbian and gay families and couples in the public discourse and contact with TD’s was identified as being of most help in highlighting the issue.

Very little other specific detail is available on the bill and it’s contents as this is a matter for the Minister for Justice. There were a lot of ‘don’t knows’ and a few ‘we hadn’t thought of that’s’ which was healthy in terms of the dialogue but alarming in terms of the impact and content of any lobbying done to date. That’s the news as such from the meeting – for more on what happened and some general opinion/commentary click below

There was also discussion of what is full equality – and why the Green Party was not calling for Marriage. John Gormley said that they had tried to include this in the discussions on the programme for government but had not succeeded and that in this programme for government they wanted movement on the issue and that this was the best option. There was as always discussion of the Constitution and the Attorney General’s advice – someday, somehow, somewhere we’ll know I suppose.

I won’t go into specific interjections from the floor as I did not have permission to quote but there were several inputs from people arguing that if full marriage were not offered then this was not good enough.

My personal perspective on the forthcoming legislation is that I would like to see a scheme introduced for the full recognition of same sex relationships by the state. The mechanism for this recognition by partnership/union is far far more important to me that the title of it. If it is the same as marriage in all ways as per the UK Civil Partnerships Act then that’s equality with other recognised conjugal relationships as far as I’m concerned.

But I have to ask why are most lobbyists now only looking for equality with a framework developed for heterosexual relationships?? Why are we not looking for recognition of our relationships and their life events and develop the discourses of our lives rather than continue to hide behind marriage? I don’t mean in terms of seeking special rights either – we have long moved away from special rights. I wonder when and how the rights of non marital conjugal same-sex relationships were dumped on the road to Matrimony?

I think that the investment of energies by community organisations into calling for marriage and marriage alone disenfranchises many many couples who need full protection and recognition and don’t care what it is called and also those who don’t want to marry but do more than cohabit.

The other problem I see with a strategy which concentrates on marriage only is that it’s clear the framework that will be developed come what may – I made the point at the meeting that it was very important that it was done right the first time and for me what it was called was not important. The detail and inclusion of children’s rights and those of parents was pivotal.

Gender proofing of any forthcoming legislation was also important for me.. actually that’s an understatement. Just because I love someone of the same gender does not make my experience of life the same as that of a gay male who loves another gay man. Many more lesbians currently have caring responsibilities than gay men. The access to legislative schemes in other countries is interesting to look at – men use same sex partnership/marriage to protect financial and inheritance rights at a far greater level than lesbian women.

When women turn to the law for recognition it’s far more likely for protection of their family unit. Women still experience poverty and social and economic disadvantage at greater rates than men, they are less likely to own property, have pensions for transfer and other inheritances and legacies. There are women who don’t have children, own 3 houses and have pensions that they wish to transfer, next of kin rights to seek and they need protection and want recognition also. However it’s those who have the weakest voices who often have the most pressing needs and their voices are not at the table for a whole myriad of reasons.

Whilst LGBT organisations and individuals talking to other partners in government is pivotal I do hope that the Green Party continue to dialogue with a broad range of people on the matter and actually learn themselves what the issues are.

This means the Green Party
• framing our rights in terms of equality and human rights,
• realising that there are same sex couple led families and families to be out there – and that our families occur, exsist and are at risk
• and realising that number crunching and making campaign targets out of them won’t make them any more real.

Wanting same sex poster couples and families to do the campaign work removes the onus that I and others expect of legislators to ensure human rights for all of their citizens. Yes let’s educate politicians on what the issues are – why legislation is needed and what is needed. But this is a matter that must be legislated for because it’s the right thing to do, it has to be done, and not just because a group of citizens are calling by T.D’s clinics looking for it.

I am but one individual in all of this, I had my chance to make my views on the matter known and to highlight some of the deficits I felt in the current debate based on my experience of talking to women in same sex relationships in both urban and rural locations in Ireland. Coming away from the meeting I think we’d be extremely naïve to think that the Green Party in government are going to make it perfect but they need to feel the heat of the cooker whilst putting their ingredients into the recipe.

The expectations of the lesbian and gay community in the ability of the Green Party to introduce full equality have probably all but disappeared after the responses to the Labour Party private members bill. They have a lot of work to do in terms of gaining trust and knowledge of the situations that face same sex partnerships and families in this state. That might not be considered by them to be the job of a party in Government (gaining our trust and using the expertise) – it is expected nonetheless by their queer electorate.

A whole lot more happened at that meeting but that’s enough for now. Other reports will appear elsewhere in the coming days no doubt and indeed as we have 3 blogging politicians amongst those in attendance it will be great to hear of their perspectives.

Your comments/questions on my longest. blog post. ever! as always are welcome.

www.LGBTlives.ie

Having completed the survey myself today I can only recommend it in terms of the data it will collect to help develop services for the lgbt community in Ireland.