History - Gay Project

Contents:

• GAY LIFE MORN IRELAND--CORK CY
• STEPHEN DEE: GAY LIFE, LGBT, LOAFERS BAR, COMG OUT.
• CORK GAY EMIGRANT: NO LONGER LIVG A SILENT AND SECRET LIFE
• CORK ART PROJECT CELEBRAT THE LIV OF OLR GAY MEN
• UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS

GAY LIFE MORN IRELAND--CORK CY

We arrived Gay Ireland via Cork on a late afternoon enterg the cy along the Lee River led wh wareho, dockyards, and a power plant that give way to an olr cy downtown wh s morn opera hoe, Victorian office buildgs and untls zy pubs. Arrivg at Roman Hoe B&B there was ltle qutn that we were a gay B&B; wh red plaid rpetg and a hall poster of Joan Crawford, Roman Hoe B&B is a playful mix of ksch and fort. After a chat wh Richard about plac to eat we strolled along trendy Pl Street wh s hearty rtrants and f (as well as an Inter shop) and ma our way to the gay Taboo bar for a drk and a chat.

Also, Cork is mostly a workg class cy wh few pretensns and seemgly void of the “body fascism and fashn fascism” found among the gay urban trendy crowds of Dubl (somewhat) or London (fely).

But bee Ireland is such a small untry, is mon for ral gays to drive for a uple of hours and be a cy where there are iends, clubs, bars, diss or snas for lettg down their guard for a day or hancy sharg the few bs of Irish queer farm life discled me om further pursu.

STEPHEN DEE: GAY LIFE, LGBT, LOAFERS BAR, COMG OUT.

Later, after Tom and Mark had fished breakfast and left, our host Richard mented that even unr the ver of a ‘big’ cy like Cork was unlikely that the ral guys ‘dulge’ the gay scene other than ge spectators havg a few beers and enjoyg the mic. Cork is big enough to support a reasonable number of gay venu, anizatns and many circl of iends.

In addn to gay events, the cy hosts events such as the annual jazz ftival, which brgs a lot of visors to Cork cludg many gay folks. Acrdg to him, the recent Day of Diversy (which ved the gay and lbian muny) was mostly aimed at racial mori pecially blacks who have arrived large numbers Ireland the past five years.

Richard is one of eight children, two of whom are gay: his brother Steve is gay and liv Dubl. Richard offered that some mothers secretly like havg gay sons bee such offsprg often ntue to pay attentn to their mothers when straight siblgs are off and gone to attend to their wiv and children.

CORK GAY EMIGRANT: NO LONGER LIVG A SILENT AND SECRET LIFE

Raised a Catholic fay he, like many other gay and lbian people, has pretty much dropped the church out of his life.

For native gay sons and lbian dghters, Irish life has been mostly ee of discrimatn, harassment and vlence recent years. Richard’s asssment of the Dubl gay scene was that had been sced by the ‘pk Euro’ to beg too mercial and overpriced.

He said the pric for drks tomatilly are bumped up after midnight the gay bars and pubs like Gee. When Richard did some renovatns on his B&B, he readily knew a gay rpenter, gay electrician and a gay kchen staller.

CORK ART PROJECT CELEBRAT THE LIV OF OLR GAY MEN

One very tertg narrative pots out that, acrdg to one study on Irish gays and lbians 1995, almost 60% of rponnts had emigrated at some pot their liv and that sexual orientatn was a key factor their cisn. As Irish laws and attus have changed signifintly the ensug , many Irish émigrés who had moved abroad now fd, ironilly, that Ireland offers more liberal laws regardg homosexualy. It has a fé, bar, a bookshop, social meetgs as well as the cy’s office of the natnal Gay Men’s Health Project, which offers advice and support for STDs and HIV.

The LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr) llectn was lnched and created Augt 2014 by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, rearchers at the Cork Folklore Project.

UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS

The llectn’s aims are to explore three ma aspects: ‘Personal Rellectns’ cludg but not limed to inty, g out and experienc of homophobia; ‘Communy Stori’ based on certa areas, streets, and forms of social teractn wh the LGBT muny; and ‘Polil Movements’, chroniclg polil events, motivatns and out such as the creatn of the Cork-based Irish Gay Rights Movement 1976, Cork Gay Collective 1980, and UCC Gay Soc 1980. DC Can you scribe, I don’t want to foc too much on negative stuff but maybe the most outstandg negative experience of homophobia that happened to you Cork? SD Em, you see I suppose my more negative was jt been bullied when I was young as apposed to direct homophobia, I had thgs shouted om rs you know at me, or ually when I was wh a certa iend who is a lot more obv to look at that he is gay, em, but I never, I was never physilly asslted for beg gay, was jt name llg, I had some problems work, a place I worked em but only the one place where I would e to a room and all the men would start talkg about gay jok, did you hear the latt gay joke, so they were directly throwg my face was more a passive aggrsive way of dog em, but eh, I’ve never really suffered s really the only type of homophobia I suffered is my own homophobia that I have tried so hard to f to a straight world where people do the whole hand signal thg that I hate where they throw their hand at a curve, you know bend and you’re a faggott bee of that, I’ve always tried to hold my hands a certa way so that when I am gturg or whatever I would never hold that way so I gus we all have a b of ternalised homophobia .

SD Yeah genr specific, yeah I mean, I would have loved like I remember when I was much younger and slimmer I had bought this top when I was Ameri and was a, was nearly see-through, was all tg and I ed to wear that gog out and the amount of people that would jt stare at me as if to this what the hell this bee you know Cork is such a small, I know s e along way but there are still certa nventns when to cloth that you are not supposed to pass, you know and em if you do your eher gay or you know em…. SD I thk statistilly Cork has a very low rate of Homophobia attacks so I thk you know Cork is a good place for a gay person to grow up, you know to be gay , em, eh, ….

Book tracg the history of the velopment of Cork's Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Communi om 1970s to 1990s.