Discrimination against gays in employment and the provision of goods and services will soon be prohibited by law in the Republic With the 1992 Amendment to the Unfair Dismissals Act already in place, and the amended Employment Equality Bill passing through the Dail, the impending Equal Status Bill will complete this aspect of the campaign for equality.
The last main plank in law reform for lesbians and gay men, as long-time activist Chris Robson put it in a recent article in Gay Community News, is partnership legislation, which would enable gay people to avail of some of the benefits of civil marriage. But, despite the emotional and fiscal cost of the present legal position to gays, Irish queers are not, on the whole, bothering their heads about it.
In Northern Ireland, where Jeff Dudgeon's European case forced the British government to extend liberalisation of the law to the province in 1981, the Blair government has pledged equalisation of the homosexual and heterosexual age of consent when that charge is introduced in Britain.
So where is queer activism going? Out of the courts and into the streets? Well, not exactly, although the effect of decriminalisation/liberalisation on the morale of the queer nation should not be underestimated. The number of cheerfully out lesbians and gay men has increased almost in proportion to the fears of the religious right, and, whatever about the low-key approach to law reform, activism is alive and kicking.
North and south of the border, the stress has been on community development (see Stephen Mulkearn's article below), with queers tapping into sources of funding while the EU is still flaithiúlach and the northern and border counties are awash with P...R money.
GALLERY SPACE
Community centres, helplines and training schemes are springing up the length and breadth of Holy Ireland; so, too, are innovative initiatives like Belfast's Queer Space, which rejects grant-aid as too costly in terms of self-determination. Many lesbian initiatives, such as the Irish Women's Camp, also organise fluidly and by consensus, free of funders' demands. And of course, many gay groups find it impossible to access funding at all.
Activism is in a constant process of development, as the WERRC-sponsored Community Strategies Day at Dublin's OutHouse last November made clear. Gay-targeted HIV prevention work is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and the Gardaí are now working with lesbians and gay men to improve their response to queer-bashing.
The arts, of course, are a major focus for gay self-definition. Dublin's lesbian and gay choir, Glória, and Muted Cupid Theatre Company are set to perform at Irish AIDS Day events this weekend; WERRC and OutHouse sponsored a Queer Arts Day last month, OutArt organises highly successful - and professional - exhibitions for Pride every year and queer gallery space is everywhere.
An increasing number of radio stations, meanwhile, are giving access to gay community groups. Lesbian and gay Irish writing flourishes, although Irish presses seem less confident about publishing it since the dear dead days of 1993-4. Publishing is still a major barrier for any group trying to promote gay-only material; Innuendo, the Irish scene magazine targeting a young, male gay readership, sank without trace after just three issues.
YOUNGER QUEERS
In Dublin and Belfast, and to a lesser extent smaller cities like Cork and Galway, a lively commercial club scene has developed in response to the pink pound, although only Dublin hosts those classic gay markers, the saunas. So confident has the young, male, gay scene in Dublin become that some of the clubs have organised "Mardi Gras" club nights at the end of May with the aim of attracting visitors from Britain and the North, to the annoyance of club-goers in the Republic.
Dublin is also alone in having a lesbian-only club night every Saturday, but the move, especially among younger queers and the more innovative clubs, is towards a queer ambience which reflects an understanding of everyone's sexuality as fluid and complex. However, when these stylish, gay-led clubs are invaded by the more brutal among our hetero brethren, we rapidly remember the point of identifying as lesbian or gay in the first place.
In celebrating how far we have come, it's important to remember how many gay people are still living in isolation and despair. Like the poor - for it takes huge political will to remedy either - queer-bashing is always with us. With no real government commitment to face down homophobia in schools, the bullying of gay children and young gay suicide continues, and the Employment Equality Bill exemption for church-run organisations will keep the closet door locked on most gay school and hospital employees.
This is why the first Irish Coming Out Day on October 10, when all the gay and lesbian help-lines, north and south, will be open for 24 hours, is the more to be welcomed. And the reason why, in a few weeks time, those of us lucky enough to be out will be celebrating Lesbian ... Gay Pride, the festival of politics and pleasure so appropriate to the present state of the Queer Nation. n
* Deborah Ballard is Editor of Gay Community News.