The GayVote.ie
Posted by Maman Poulet on 24 Apr 2007 at 01:18 am | Tagged as: Blogging, Irish Politics, KAL Case, LGBT, Queer, Same Sex Partnerships, gayvote.ie, irishelection2007
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.
Queen Victoria style, Suzy. Don’t mention the L word
(the 1845 Offences Against The Person Act dealt with the awful stuff that boys do with boys but not the similarly awful stuff between gurls).
Nice site, though.
And isn’t it a shame that my ‘brothers’ have this victorian inspired amnesia also Daithi! There must be some medication they can take for that!
I utterly agree with you Suzy, the ‘gay vote’ idea is simplistic. While its a nice idea to have a site with info about ‘the gay vote’ in one place, I didn’t find ‘lesbian’ mentioned once, and not an allusion to bisexuals or to trans* voters, which is worrying. And their rush job on ranking TDs solely on the single issue of Civil Unions demonstrates a simplistic analysis of any TDs gay friendliness. Is Civil Unions the only issue in town? What comes *after* Civil Unions lads? D’you know who the site owners are Suzy? They don’t say who they are on the site, and its a bit rich to want info about the ‘next five years’ without identifying themselves openly on the site. And what are they doing with Bebo, its like navigating a swamp?
The owners have identified themselves as Dabid Cochrane – owner of politics.ie and Steven Conlon USI LGBTRO.
I’ve been saying this again and again. Civil Unions are not the only issues. What about Transgender recognition, what about section 37, – there are many many other issues. Politicians can after this election probably say – your “representatives” never asked us about section 37 or lesbian health or anything other than “gay rights (civil unions)”
The site is a bit overly simplistic in how it analyses things if you ask me.
Also examining plainly the voting record is a joke. I mean I’m not an FF fan but if I had a vote in Dun Laoghaire or Tallaght I would consider giving preferences to Charlie O Connor or Barry Andrews not because of their votes but their speeches
Ian – I think part of the problem with using American-style “how your representatives voted” analysis is that within the Irish political system, the number of people within the life of the current Dáil who voted outside of the party line can be counted on one hand. There is very little point in breaking down voting records by constituency, you just need a page that says the Government voted one way and the Opposition voted the other and everything else follows! Whereas in the US, you can have things like NARAL doing a scorecard on everyone in terms of abortion rights – cause every vote is different and you can build individual profiles. If we had more of a tradition of free votes and of breaking lines, you’d get a more nuanced picture.
Daithi
You are of course right – however hacks like you and I will of course know that very well – I am actually amazed at the number of people who didn’t know this and on sites like gaire/queerid saying – I can’t believe my local FF TD voted against