Archive for the ‘In the Press’ Category
Edition 10
Edition 10
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
Irish Blood Transfusion Service
The Class Reps Council of UL Students� Union will on Tuesday the 23rd consider a motion prohibiting the Irish Blood Transfusion Service from campus because of their ban on taking blood from gay men. The ban which has not been reviewed since the 1980s has been the subjects of a campaign by the students of UL against the prohibition.
The campaign started last year when 700 UL students signed a petition against the ban. The Students� Union along with the �Out in UL� Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Society have organised many meetings and dialogues on the issue with the IBTS but have been unable to come to agreement on the issue of the ban. According to Students' Union Welfare Officer David Garrahy "We have been disappointed with the position of the IBTS in relation to this ban. We feel it is time to change the criteria for gay men donating blood based on the changing demographics of infection among the gay community".
The original ban on blood donation from gay men was implemented during the high incidence of HIV among the gay community in the 1980s. Since then, however, vigilance and increased knowledge has meant that now about 80% of new cases of HIV are among the heterosexual community and there was a 30% alone reduction in infection last year. However the decrease in infection has not changed how the ban is implemented. This means that gay men without any possibility of infection by the disease and who have regular testing are not eligible to donate.
The motion will express its concerns to the IBTS on the issue and seek a derogation from the ULSU Equality Policy which bans any discrimination on the grounds of Sexual Orientation, in order to allow the IBTS on campus.
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Edition 9
Edition 9
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
Queer Bashing at U.L.
It seems we here at "Out in UL" just can't stop coming up with great new ideas to go out, get locked (�out of our houses!) and dance / 'network' the night away. Our latest event is gonna be HUGE! - "The Queer Bash!" It's on Wednesday 3rd of March in The Trinity Rooms and promises to be one of the best nights out all year.
Being the considerate, caring people that we are, we're not just confining this fantastic night out to just UL, far from it! The list of other colleges falling over themselves to come down and see how it's done include: NUIG, GMIT, Cork IT, UCC, Athlone IT, IT Tralee, Dundalk IT, Waterford IT, DCU and not to forget our usual partners in crime Mary I and LIT as well as many more. This gives us all here at UL and all the other colleges a great chance to get to know each other (�ahem).
Just in case any of you are a little concerned about missing out on all the fun, don't be! "The Queer Bash" is not a gay-only event - everyone is more than welcome to come along. Tickets are only �5, NOT �7 as the posters say! You can get tickets from any of our members or by emailing us (see address below).
Oh, just a couple of things before I go - The Gay Guides are out and scattered all over the college, so pick one up and give it a read. Congratulations to some of our members. Firstly to our esteemed president on managing to keep his famously big gob shut for 12 hours while on stage in the Scholars last Friday. No idea how much money was raised as of yet but it was a great success. Secondly, to our new Webmaster Kevin Brohan - complements on the fantastic site Kev! (See it at heaven.skynet.ie). Thirdly to our new Secretary Will Sheehy - congratulations on the election win. And lastly but obviously not least - congrats to me - the new communications officer (how arrogant is that?)
And just to mention before I go that we paid a little visit to NUIG on Thursday the 19th of February and they brought us to "Smells Like Queen Spirit" in The Vic. Fun was had by all, even if some people only have a vague recollection of the night (Paddy!?!)
We in "Out in UL" think it's particularly important to be accessible and welcoming and we aim to make it as easy as possible to get involved in the society. We all understand how difficult it is if you are not sure/not out/or just out - we've all been there! - so don't be afraid to get in touch….you won't regret it.
Email: outinul@yahoo.ie
Derrick Howard
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Edition 8
Edition 8
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
New year, new queers!
The second semester has just kicked off and Out in UL are already well into the swing of things. While all you fairies have been on your arses for the break, we've been working like mad to make sure we pack it all in this semester.
To start off with we have the new website up and running, heaven.skynet.ie, after saying a sad farewell to that rainbow flag that was close to our hearts (!). Then our AGM is on 18th Feb so we'll have a new committee to boss us around and on Thurs 19th we're off to Galway to meet up with some NUIG students.
For week 2 the Garda Liaison Officer will be paying us a visit to talk to us about our legal rights and who to contact if we're ever in trouble. Then, on Thursday, we're meeting OPC to go rock climbing again. If you feel like laughing at a bunch of lads and learning how to use a harness then come along. It's bound to be a laugh if last semester was anything to go by.
In week 3 Out in UL is hosting "Queer Bash". This is gonna be the big one lads. Students from 12 colleges in the south and west are going to descend upon Limerick and live it up for the night. Trinity Rooms are hosting the event and tickets are on sale now. This promises to be a great night and it's a mixed event so grab your handbags and grab your friends. Along with this event the Gay Southern Forum is also going well. We have already met up with colleges in Cork and Galway and for this semester we plan on visiting colleges in Waterford, Tralee and Athlone while the "Queer Bash" brings them in our direction.
For more information on any of these or upcoming events for the next term you can check out the Gay guides that'll be around college this week. Or else log on to the website where we'll have the full list of planned events for the coming weeks.
As you can see there are lots of things going on for us this semester. It's going to be even busier than the last one. Its great fun and you'll make some cool friends so if anyone wants to join, just come to a meeting or e-mail us on outinul@yahoo.ie
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Edition 7
Edition 7
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
Senator David Norris visits U.L.
OUT in UL had the pleasure of organising a visit from Senator David Norris for World Aids Day (Monday 1st December) to speak about homosexuality in Ireland and the improvements that have been made since the days of the Norris V AG case in 1984 and those that remain to be done. Anyone who was fortunate enough to have attended the speech at 6pm in FG042 will know how entertaining and interestingly informative the speech was. The lecture hall was reasonably full with a large attendance from Law and Politics students. Dr. Amanda Hayes chaired.
Senator Norris is widely known throughout the country for his broadcasting and publication endeavours (usually in the form of a scathing letter to the Irish Times Editorial) and while by and large most people had heard him before there was an atmosphere of unknowing expectation. Little did we think that he would bounce up and begin his speech with an introduction As Ghaelige in an upper middle class English accent.
The man could talk for Ireland and proceeded to do so over the course of an hour in which he spoke about everything and anything with hilarious anecdotes dispersed widely and executed with such animation and theatrical flamboyance that he had the audience in fits of laughter.
After his speech he opened the floor to questions and answered each, refusing no-one, with a thoroughness and breadth of knowledge that was astounding. The discourse wrapped up at 8pm with a truly well deserved standing ovation.
After the Senator had spent a few moments talking to some of the audience there was a mass exodus to the Sports Bar where Senator Norris showed immense good form in joining us for (a few) drinks during which he not only kept the members of the society that were there speechless with laughter but the majority of the bar as well.
Senator Norris is an amazing individual whose crusade over the past two and a half decades has allowed societies like OUT in UL to exist. I for one feel privileged and honoured to have had the opportunity of hearing his story and meeting him. Hopefully UL will have the pleasure of such a visit some time again in the not so distant future.
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Edition 6
Edition 6
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
Out in UL's Galway experience
Well the past two weeks may have been quiet on Walton's Mountain but in the Debating Union, a lot has happened. The first two weekends in November see two of the biggest and best IV's Oxford and Cambridge take place. On the 7th of November, Paddy Buckley, Eamon time but we hope that now they'll be hooked and we'll see them debate in the future. Our workshops have finished for this semester but will be starting up again in the second semester; we know there are lots of talented speakers out there they just have to be found.
On Saturday 8th November "Out in UL" LGB Society set out for a night on the town in Galway. The trip was planned to coincide with the Pink Training event, an annual event run by USI. On Saturday afternoon, 11 of us made the trek up, with the help of the not-so-reliable Bus Eireann. Upon arrival at our fabulous hostel, which leaked "water" through the ceilings and herded 14 guests into each room, we began to realise the benefits of booking a nice hostel well in advance and not leaving things until the last minute! Though it was nice to see such a pleasant reaction from the manager when she realised just what society she had agreed to let stay in her hostel! Despite our luxurious surroundings, we decided not to waste any time and headed straight out. First stop was Stranos, a gay pub down the road from the hostel. It was there that we began our process of networking with other colleges; almost all third level colleges in Ireland were represented at the weekend, and we were determined to get to know as many as possible. We had planned to venture on to the other gay pub in Galway-Zulu's-but many drinks later we all headed from Stranos to the nightclub. It had been arranged that all the colleges would go to the Tribes nightclub in Salthill. The "networking" continued well into the early hours, but we're not at liberty to disclose too much information on that!
We managed to find each other the next morning, and all made it back to Limerick in one piece. And the night was so much fun, we're heading back up there this week! This time we're meeting up with other colleges from the Southern Forum-a group of colleges from the South and west-so that we can all do some more "networking"�
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Edition 5
Edition 5
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
Out in UL Movie Reviews
BOYS DON'T CRY
A dramatic and devastating drama, which will almost definitely leave you speechless and emotionally wiped out, could be the best way to describe Boys Don't Cry, a fascinating film based on a heartbreaking true story. The film centres around Teena Brandon a Nebraska girl confused about her sexual identity. Rather than accepting a life she doesn't want to lead i.e. that of a female, the courageous Brandon pretends to be a boy and while in the beginning, this decision results in the love and companionship Brandon had so desperately sought, it also leads to his shocking and tragic end. Hilary Swank, who delivers a phenomenal performance, plays Brandon. She inhabits Brandon's contradictions and passions with a natural vibrancy most actresses would refuse to give themselves over to. Swank is so convincingly masculine that if you walked in on the middle of the movie, you would never know you were watching an actress at all. Throughout the film we feel Brandon's confusion, uncertainty and alienation.
When Brandon moves to Nebraska he finds love in the form of Lana and while there are touching moments of sweetness between the pair of them, overall the mood of the film is very sombre. The last part of the film, when Brandon's true identity is discovered, is almost unbearable and most definitely not for the faint hearted. Indeed if one is expecting a happy ending (as I was) it would perhaps be a good idea to leave early. The rape and murder scenes are shocking (don't watch this film on your own). They are conducted by Brandon's so called "friends", who are very disgusted by their own willingness to freely accept Brandon into their lives, and the harrowing images will almost certainly have you looking for your remote control.
As the charismatic protagonist, Brandon embodies the ongoing dilemma of masculine identity. The film ends up posing precisely the questions that face Brandon. What does it mean to be a man? How is masculinity defined, and what must one do to live up to the prescribed role? How can violence become a thinkable response to the chaos and frustration of daily life? Above all, the film delivers a rather chilling and disturbing message, one that governs all of mankind: What human beings don't understand they destroy.
THE LARAMIE PROJECT
Another deeply moving film about bigotry, intolerance and hate, which again is based on a true story, is the Laramie Project. The film revolves around the events that occurred in October 1998 when Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old openly gay student was tied to a fence post and savagely beaten to death in Laramie, Wyoming.
The awful truth about the film is that the motive behind the hideous crime was simply none other than hatred towards Shepard's homosexuality. The director, Moises Kaufmann, adopts a documentary style throughout the film and focuses largely on the interviews conducted by a New York theatre group with the local residents of Wyoming. Perhaps the most surprising element of the film is that we don't actually get a glimpse of Matthew. The only insight given to his life are the statements given by the townspeople who remembered him. Yet the numerous images of the fence to which he was tied to serve as a constant reminder of the suffering and pain Matthew endured. A superb cast play their roles to perfection, at moments you forget they are actors, their intensity is dialled up so high.
The Laramie project has a remarkable emotional power. Dennis Shepard's speech, addressed to one of his son's killers in the courtroom is particularly gut wrenching. One's heart also genuinely aches at the harrowing image of a pair of headlights driving through the darkness and arriving at the scene of the murder.
Credit must go to Kaufmann for resisting any effort to demonise small town communities who are often automatically stereotyped as homophobic. Instead the people of Wyoming are portrayed as ordinary people emphatically struggling with the knowledge of the physical agony that Shepard experienced, as well as the mixture of disgust, outrage and despair of knowing that two local men-Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were responsible.
This is a film that will leave you deeply shocked and troubled, it makes Matthew Shepard into a symbol of the damage caused by hatred and homophobia.
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Edition 4
Edition 4
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
I'm coming out. I want the World to know…
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both" from "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost At some point in every gay persons life comes those dreaded words "coming out". No matter who you are, if you are gay then you have to give this some thought whether or not you want to. There are hundreds of reasons to tell people and just as many not to.
I was nearly 15 when I first came out to someone. Despite my fear and worry I knew I'd go mental if I said nothing. And it went ok. My friend listened, asked me was I sure, and said it made no difference to him. Since then I've come out to plenty of people and all my friends know I'm gay. It's generally not been a problem. I've had some strange reactions to coming out ("you don't fiddle with kiddies do you?"), but once the shock wears off people don't seem to mind and my friendships have improved as a result of being honest.
But it hasn't all been easy. One very religious friend thought I was sick and wanted to get me leaflets and help for "my illness" while another person told me that we should all be "lined up and shot". I didn't expect coming out to people at the time to be good but I certainly didn't expect that reaction from a friend. I've also had problems with "friends" deciding that my business is everybody's news. The rumour mill can be harsh if you're on the receiving end of it. But you can't expect everything to be perfect and in the long run it didn't make a difference to me. I just learned to choose my friends wisely.
Here in UL being gay hasn't been a problem for me. I told my housemates almost straight away and made sure it wouldn't be a problem while everyone on my course thought it was great that I was so open about it. Many said that I was brave coming out so quickly but I just see it as being honest. Who I am is not a problem for me; why should it be for them?
Out In UL has also been great craic. It was the first society I joined since I knew I'd make use of it and I'm finally getting to know gay people my own age, something almost impossible where I come from. Paddy, the president, is approachable (at times) and puts in the effort to make you feel welcome (Either that or he fancies me!). I'm getting to know the Limerick scene thanks to the soc and the interaction with the other clubs is good fun. I had a ball at the rock climbing with OPC and will definitely do it again. For anyone who missed it go if you get a chance in the future.
The one thing I think I don't like is that I have to keep coming out. There is always someone who doesn't know and then I have to tell him or her eventually. It gets annoying doing it again, and again, and again. But I love being out. I don't have to lie about myself anymore and I know who my real friends are: the ones who accept me. If I had the chance to go back into the closet again there is no way I'd take it. Everyone is fine with me being myself and the few who do have a problem I don't want to know anyway.
I'm happy being who I am and that's all that matters.
Thomas (1st Year)
Edition 2
Edition 2
Out in UL - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society
Well seeing as all the new Freshers are still finding their feet here we are having our meeting in the most easily found venue on campus, that's right the function room of the scholars club…AN PHLUAIS. The meeting of "Out in U.L." is scheduled for 6 pm and is really only a meet and greet for all the people to get to know each other.
I am looking forward to the launch of the "Gay Southern Forum", which is taking place the following Monday here in the university (Monday 6th). That's right, loads of madness here in Limerick for all you hormonal young (and not so young) non-breeders of the university. The significance of 12 colleges coming together for L.G.B. awareness is substantial and can only work to address gay issues of students around the country so as to allow a better understanding of the broader picture. I know your all wondering who the hell is coming… well only one way to find out and that's to get your sorry ass to the meetings and see… The night will be highlighted by the showing of a new film on the murder of an American Queer.
"The Laramie Project" alone is enough reason to turn up and the fact that it's the five year anniversary of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard will surely make all present realize that gay life in society needs support and that society needs to get to grip with homosexuality so there are no more murders of this nature. 21 YEARS OLD AND KILLED FOR BEING GAY- HARDLY EQUALITY.
Now comes the part I love, the sincere thank yous to all my support team, a.k.a. the Kayak Club (Don, Homer, Seona). I better hank my committee for all the help during the two days of recruitment. The gay guide reached over 2,000 first years and saw a fantastic sign up of students to "Out in U.L." (L.G.B.) society, possibly the best ever, but I'm not too sure as we don't really count very well. But that's right- the Kayak club are leading the way in inclusion of queers on the campus (they folded nearly every one of the gay guides rather than leave me all abandoned). "Never fear, Kayak are here"
The recruitment drive was great, not only did we get new members but we also got to meet some of the local T.D.s; Peter Power and Willie O'Dea. I must say that Mr. Power truly was a pleasure to talk with on the issues of gay rights. Mr. O'Dea was in a rush on very serious business (shame) yet I am assured that he will gladly meet with the gay students. Kinda important as the junior minister of EQUALITY I would have thought.
So all will know the gay guide is due out again soon so keep your little peepers peeled, as it's a key to finding us on campus. But if all else fails we will undoubtedly find you so…
Keep cruising…
Patrick Mc Hugh.
President and man in need
(not the lodge, please its scary).
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Issue 10 Letter
Issue 10
Dear Madam,
I am writing to you to commend the work of Out in UL-the UL LGB Society. As a person who has just recently begun the process of coming out, I feel reassured and lucky that at this time in UL there is this supportive and outwardly active Society. I can only hope that students in a similar position feel as encouraged as I am about the active existence of Out in UL and through their work help create, as I see it, a campus which is at some level supportive of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Students.
I am not a member (yet) of Out in UL, and I am writing to let them know what the active existence of their Society means to me and I hope that it will allow students' in a similar position to have faith; knowing that if they need it that there is someone out there for help, support and fun (reference to the brilliant night that was "Queer Bash"), be it Out in UL (no matter how wired these delightful individual may seem), the SU Welfare Officer or University Counselling. At present I am the happiest I have ever been and long may it continue and it is primarily down to accepting who I am and being open with those in whom I trust.
I know this may appear to be a bit propagandist, but I feel strong about it and like a lot of things at the moment I needed to get off my chest.
Well Done to Out in UL, best of luck in the future and to those who are or thinking about coming out.
Signed:
Not quite out, but getting there!
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