On Sunday February 2, South King Street in Dublin was occupied by 2,000 protesters, attending the Speak Out Against Homophobia rally. The protest was inspired by RTÉ’s decision to pay €85,000 to The Iona Institute and John Waters, after drag performer and guest on The Saturday Night Show, Rory O’Neill (aka Panti), used the word ‘homophobic’ to describe their views on same-sex marriage.

The individuals concerned all had been offered a right of reply to O’Neill’s comments by RTÉ, but refused. The programme clip is no longer available on the RTÉ player.

It was against this background that Caroline Earley, from LGBT Noise, condemned “the silencing of Rory O’Neill’s comments.” And she described the apology issued to John Waters, Breda O’Brien, and four members of the Iona Institute as “misplaced.”

“These actions by RTÉ explicitly contravene their role as a public broadcasters,” she argued. “It’s not only irresponsible, but damaging in the extreme. LGBT Noise defends the principle of free speech.”

Senator David Norris said he wants to know why RTÉ agreed to the payment.

“If they’re going to do that, I want to know why,” he said to loud cheers. “It’s not their money. It’s our licence fee. It’s unprecedented, the speed at which they did it.”

He believes it is time that a “searchlight was turned on the Iona Institute.”

David Carroll, Executive Director of BeLong To Youth Services gave an emotive speech about the damaging effects of homophobia. Caroline Earley then returned to the stage, to accuse RTÉ of ignorance when it comes to discussing LGBT issues, and launch a scathing critique of Brendan O’Connor’s interview with Pussy Riot on this week’s Saturday Night Show.

In his interview with the Russian feminist punk-rock protesters, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, O’Connor eschewed questions about Russia’s oppressive anti-gay laws.

“Instead of asking them about the rights of LGBT people under Putin’s regime,” Earley noted, “these women, who have become symbols of hope and rebellion, campaigning for human rights, were asked about Madonna.”

There was also criticism of The Saturday Night Show’s panel on homophobia, in which Susan Phillips “forgot” that she’d opposed the decriminalisation of homosexuality, and Noel Whelan objected to the “harshness” of the homophobic label.

Comedian Tara Flynn captured the absurdity of it all brilliantly, performing a version of her satire The Case For Mammy/Daddy Marriage. “Wouldn’t stopping marriage between a man and man, or a woman and a woman in love, be discrimination?” she asks innocently. “Yes,” comes the response. “But it’s what we call ‘the right kind’ of discrimination.”
In truth, however, it’s not a laughing matter anymore.