After an eventful weekend.....

Righteo, Tuesday 21st April '09. What a great weekend I am after having. Seriously! And by weekend I mean Sunday and Monday (mainly Sunday actually, lol). Sunday I woke up on the dot 10:20am and realised the train was in ten minutes. I obviously missed it and only had 3.5hrs to get to Dublin for the Civil Marriage protest that was being held outside Central Bank at 2pm. I rang my mother hoping she would drive me to the airport where I think I would make it right on time and she offered to drive me to Dublin (257km away). I wasn't so sure we'd make it as it was 11.30am by the time we left and it normally takes us about 3.5hrs to get there which means I wouldn't have gotten there 'til 2.30pm. BUT....my mother is amazing and we arrived at the protest after parking. etc...at 2pm (thank you new Cork to Dublin Motorway).

Anyway in the car I realised just how liberal my mother was. She asked about the protest and how it would affect me and what changes we wanted as a society and things to that effect. About religious leadership and the grassroots of religious movements Tony Blair and his stance and his understanding of the Bible. She really had her eyes open, as did I as she was genuinely interested in these topics. She was never one to be all coy and embarrassed by me being gay but she always held a dislike for the lifestyle I was born with-like alot of other mothers who don't want their child to be on the cusp of society, the "easy target" as it were. Anyway while at the protest some very influential figures spoke, amoung them Michael Barron, Rory O'Neill a.k.a "Panti", and a few LGBT Noise members and MarriagEquality members.

Basically the turnout was estimated by some papers to be around 800 people and I am proud to say, my mother, two of my bestfriends and I were amoung the crowd. I also met alot of the GCN team there (as I now write the Cork Column for GCN). Anyway I am and always will be very moved by that day. I then randomly went drag shopping with my mother who I thought would flip, but didn't. Infact took it upon herself to tell me what wigs/eyelashes etc...suited my face shape!! I guess you never REALLY know how anyone is going to react until you just COME OUT and say what it is that you really want to say!

Eventful weekend. Many more to come I hope!

GAY RIGHTS = EQUAL RIGHTS

Also going to be putting up a new post soon about the issue of meeting your TD/Local Councillor as they depend on you and your families/friends votes and should be willing to support the locals if it wishes to represent the locals!!

Looking back!!

Okay, so this week I managed to send invites to most/all of my hotmail contacts to try sign this petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/gay-ireland , which gives gay people the right to marry, which means if we get marriage, that's a big hurdle crossed and at least we will be entitled to the same rights as hetrosexual people. There is nothing that is religious about the movement for gay marriage, infact it's more to do with law than religion. Whether the church wants gay marriage or not is irrelevant, we want civil marriage, which is CIVIL and not RELIGIOUS! Looking back at the petition I sent out I couldn't remember where I signed it (as everyone is allocated a number). Searching through all the people who electronically signed it I eventually came to my name and comment....number 700. It only started in March (19th) and ten days later on March 29th when I signed it already it had 700 signatures.

NOW....it is April 18th (one month later) and in the 30 days that it has been up our target was 2,000 people but when we reached 1,500 it changed our target to 8,000 which I think is great...we need to have something to aspire to (both the movement and in life) and if we reached 2,000 we would have been like, "Great, eh....so what now??" but the fact that it is being a realistic goal is helpfull!! I say realistic as 8,000 people might seem alot but in 30 days today, 1618 people (by 13:11pm) have signed the petition which on average is roughly 60 people per day signed the petition...does that give you a sense of the anger, and rage as well as the amount of people that do not approve what the Irish Government are doing!!??

Tomorrow (Sunday 19th) exactly one month after the petition was launched at 2pm there will be a protest outside Central Bank, Dublin with speakers like Michael Barron to highlight the importance and NEED for marriage and it's rights to be universally equal with no gender specifics!

I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!

And we're off....

So today I woke up with a huge amount of love, admiration and huge and deeply profound respect for my fellow gay! Who would have thought at 21 I would want to be an activist!? But I want to be one, and I want to be one NOW! I am a person who like to have their fingers in all the pies, I am currently holding positions as the following with great respect for each position.

1. Cork Pride 2009 - Public Relations Office/Secretary.


2. GCN - Cork Columnist (begins with May Edition).


3. http://www.gaycork.com/ appointed blogger for weekly social events as of April.


4. The Cork "link" for LGBT Noise in our strive to legalise marriage for all, without it being sexual orientation based!


5. Southern Gay Mens Health Outreach Volunteer.


6. And hopefully after sending an email today will also be involved in MarriagEquality, Ireland!


7. I also have a full time job and a part time job....just for good measure!

With the above positions I hold great respect! I would like to see some "revolution" of sorts happen now more than ever in Ireland. In 1993 homosexuality was decriminalised which means we could be gay without getting a fine/beating/arrested or prison!

Now 16yrs on we are still stuck back in 1993, yeah sure maybe some of the prejudice is gone, as is the stigma mostly, but the progression is still not moving forward! We have been stagnant for 16yrs and now we need to make a mark of remembrance.

We need to be able to say, yes if I die tomorrow I will know my child is going to be allowed to live with my partner, whether it be man or woman! But currently Civil Partnerships is what's on offer which, yes it does sound appealing but it doesn't cover the main issues! I want to have a tax break, yes, I want to be able to visit my loved one in hospital, yes!

BUT...if my loved one should pass away in that hospital I want to know that my 6/7 year old son and 3/4year old daughter are going to continue to live with their living father in a manner in which they know and love. Rather than having my dead husbands parents having more rights over them than their living father!!

THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE!!

AND I WANT CHANGE NOW!!

Please help me and the hundreds of thousands like me in Ireland who want to have the chance to have a family be legally allowed!

VISIT HERE TO HELP: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/gay-ireland