iDissent: Pride is a sin

Iris Robinson's comments reaffirm the necessity of exercising your right to demonstrate your hard-won freedoms

The rain falling from the sky all over the UK reminds us that it's summer once again, and in many cities, Pride season. It's the time for improbably tanned and well-turned-out men and women to take to the streets and parks of places like Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester and Belfast and celebrate their sexual identity, and the possibility to do so. Despite the commercialisation of Pride festivals there are still many people who recognise such lofty purpose to them. There are also some who consider the practice of an albeit broad social group taking to the streets over a series of weekends to demonstrate their identity, in countries where their legal right to respect and tolerance for that identity is already enshrined, to be redundant. That appears to be the view expressed by the least offensive of Iris Robinson's utterances, regarding the Pride event held in Belfast this year.

Mrs Robinson [representative for Strangford] has repeatedly made bigoted remarks and statements regarding queer sexual orientation, a habit which has brought her to the attention of the Police, accused of hate crime. While the Northern Ireland First Minister's wife's ignorance provided a zest, and boost to attendance, for the Belfast march, it appears it may be sadly representative of a wider trend. According to research by Ulster University, "Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of bigoted people in the western world" with homosexuals bearing the brunt of their contempt.

Ongoing struggle
A friend of mine in Sydney, who I'm certain wouldn't mind being quoted here but whom we shall refer to just as S. once asked me why she had to witness the spectacle of naked lesbians cycling through her city every year. Don't they already have the acceptance they want? Isn't it just an excuse for a party? The answer I offered her might be of interest to dear old Iris also. The fact that the persistence of the LGBT community in staging Pride events draws ignorant and offensive comments from certain individuals [amongst whom I do not count my friend S.] validates the movement, because it shows there is still much ground to be won even in pluralist and educated societies. The rise in homophobic violence in Sydney over the past year, along with the level of bigotry and ignorance surrounding queer sexuality in the western world is proof of this [no, it is not a mental condition that can, nor should, be remedied by a psychiatrist Iris]. Unfortunately, it seems many people are determined to continue living by standards many of us had hoped were dead. Those of us who believe that what consenting adults do together in their own time is their own business and that all should be free to form relationships with whomever they have the appropriate feelings for are still talking to more than a few brick walls out there. It's especially sad and madenning that this is happening within the EU, supposedly the home of progressive societies oriented toward liberty and backed by rich domestic cultural heritage.

The strength of strident Catholic homophobia and the right wing popularism of the Kaczynsky administration sets a formidable challenge to gay rights movements there, and has lead to clashes with Brussels. That government considered it reasonable to oppose the draft EU Constitutional Treaty partly on the grounds that there was no mention of God in the preamble, and that it proposed the recognition and protection of the right to form relationships between two people, not stating that one must be a male and the other a female. Nothing in these points inhibited the freedom of religious expression nor compelled all EU citizens to pair-up male to male and female to female. The fact that they ignored the importance of christianity [in a modern, multiethnic continental political organisation home to christians, muslims, seikhs, atheists, druids and so forth] and allowed the freedom of everyone to choose their partner according to their emotions was contemptible for Jaroslaw Kaczynksy. Gay pride events in Poland have famously met with public and open hostility and obstacles despite Poland's membership in the EU. Not even to mention the spite and ignorance of the likes of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and uncriticised violence suffered by the queer population of Russia at the hands of right-wingers bigots and other breeds of idiot.

There are also countries where otherwise legally equal citizens, who pay the same taxes, carry the same passport and fulfil the same obligations as heterosexuals, cannot enter into relationships that enjoy the same recognition and legal protection as those of heteros, cannot adopt children, cannot offer their blood for transfusions [because if you're gay, it stands to reason you have HIV/AIDS, so what's the point...] and so forth. More importantly, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people or individuals who are of any category otherwise outside the mainstream in other countries where their acceptance in society is even poorer are aware of these highly visible events. They provide a platform to encourage local LGBT communities to strive for the same respect and equality as those of us lucky enough to be born in one of the world's more pluralist and open societies, even when that pluralism is marred by offensive or bigoted jibes and attacks. Indeed, the fact that the situation in the UK is still not perfect [though much better than elsewhere even within the EU, for example in Italy and Poland], serves to demonstrate that this is a process, which had a start, as it has to have elsewhere, which we can all pitch-in with together, and above all that we shouldn't let up the momentum that has gathered.

additional material

I couldn't resist adding this graphic as well as providing the following resources which will be of interest.