In 1988, HP journalist Joe Jackson interviewed the then Lord Mayor, Ben Briscoe. His homophobic opinions in the resulting article in Hot Press sparked an argument in the letters section of the Irish Times, to which Dermod Moore, then unaffiliated with Hot Press, contributed his thoughts. Here's the letter in full.
Sir, - The Lord Mayor and Dr Frank Fine (letters, September 10th) appear to be unaware of (or indifferent to) the fact that hundreds of thousands of men and women were put to death for being homosexual during the Holocaust. When discussing discrimination against gay people, it is impossible to avoid referring to that fact.
Dr Fine does not see the irony in Mr Briscoe making remarks offensive to gay people. It is not lost on me. In Ireland in the Eighties, the murderers of a gay man are let go free, and our lifestyle is still criminalised, the last country in western Europe where this is the case. With the honourable exception of brave people like Senator David Norris, we are mostly invisible, vulnerable and fearful section of the community.
I hope that when, some day, an an openly gay man or woman is elected Lord Mayor of Dublin, he or she will not stoop so low as to make anti-semitic remarks. But I don't think that's likely. Each generation of gay people has to come to terms with growing up different, usually without the support of family, friends or other gay people. We can't go through life without learning to recognise the ugly face of bigotry. Evidently Mr Briscoe and Dr Fine can.
Read the original article by Joe Jackson:
http://www.hotpress.com/archive/1688152.html
