My parade June 26, 2011
Posted by Tomboktu in back at the Seanad, Education, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Inequality, Ireland, Ministers.trackback
[re-posted from the comments at Wordlbystorm’s suggestion]
I walked in the Dublin parade yesterday, walking for part of it with LGBT Pavee, and part of it with another group I am a member of.
Four unsettled issues I noticed at the parade.
(1) The Grand Marshal this year was Michael Barron, CEO of BeLonG To Youth Services. One of the key issues BeLonG To works on is homophobic bullying. It is six years after the first research report funded by the Department of Education showed there is a major problem in Irish second-level schools. [Quiz: what percentage of teachers reported they witnessed incidents of homophobic bullying in the term before the study occurred? Was it
(a) 79%
(b) 69%
(c) 59%]
And six years on, Minister Ruairí Quinn has announced he is considering (note: only ‘considering’) setting up a working group to come up with a road map. Not one school inspection has examined the issue in that six years.
(2) LGBT Noise and Marriage Equality were there, with a reminder from LGBT Noise that a less celebratory and more political march is to occur in August. (I love the line in one of their placards: “Jesus had 2 dads and he tuned out fine”.)
[I don’t know if it is the settings on my machine or a characteristic of WordPress, but the image below is cropped when I look at it. I have made a link to the source so you can see the full image.]
(3) The three teachers’ unions were there, and Maman Poulet points out that Ruairí Quinn took the opportunity to be photographed with them. She, in turn, uses that opportunity to ask him what he is doing about section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act, which allows lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers to be discriminated against by the overwhelming bulk of Irish schools.
(4) During the week, TENI, Transgender Equality Network Ireland, marked the first anniversary of the decision of the Government to withdraw its Supreme Court appeal in the case taken by Lydia Foy to have her true gender legally recognised. It has been eighteen years — longer than the Birmingham Six spent in jail — since she first asked for that right. Three days later, TENI got news that Minister Joan Burton has received the report of the Gender Recognition Advisory Group. There was some support for TENI. FLAC published a press release, and Katherine Zappone raised the issue and the delay in the Seanad.
________
Answer to the multiple choice quiz: (a).
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
LBGT Pavee? Never new that existed – but I suppose it has to, if you think about it. (What a sheltered life I lead!)
The link is broke BTW – but here is the forum.
Quiz answer = 79%, I’d hazard a guess – given that ‘gay’ seems to be a catch-all term of abuse in schools, and wider afield.
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Link now fixed. Ta for the heads up
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“LBGT Pavee? Never new that existed”
They marched for the first time last year. The poignant bit was that this year, they had made theor own banner. (Last year they marched under the combined banners of the Irish Traveller Movement and Pavee Point.) Sewn onto the banner were buttons from members who felt they could not participate in public.
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Of broader interest to CLR readers, I suspect, is the fact that the LGBT Pavee contingent was bigger than the Gay Greens contingent. (And the SWP contingent; Labour had a bus, and SF had a fair oul grouping. FF and FG were absent.)
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Came across this after seeing some of after awards. Anyone know why the Irish Traveller Movement recieved one of the Marshal awards and not LGBT Pavee members themselves? I tracked down the ITM facebook and some LGBT Travellers that post there are confused.
Were people unwillng to recieve the award like at the Irish Traveller Awards back in Dec, or is it just politics? The former I’m a bit suspect of as I under stand some members have being far more open, involved and media engaged this year.
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Four Traveller groups walked together: LGBT Pavee, ITM, Pavee Point, and Clondalkin Traveller PHC. The marshal for that part of the parade was provided (again) by the ITM: Paula Madden.
When LGBT Pavee won a Traveller Pride award last December, their award was accepted for them by Rosaleen McDonagh on behalf of LGBT Pavee. The person who had been lined up said in another online forum that he got last-minute “personal nerves not fear”.
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Thats a relief!
I wonder did all the groups nominate to be together in the march or were they just placed that way by the pride management. I also wonder what apart from marching have ITM, Pavee Point and the Clondalkin Traveller PHC done to help the LGBT itinerant population?
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As of the award, the exact delegation would I would assume be due to a pride board agreement. Seeing as LGBT Pavee, Pavee Point and C-PHC are all member of the Irish Traveller Movement, it seems more of an inclusive choice that pays dues not only to the LGBT members that were there, but the reflective community as a whole.
I notice also you used the word itinerant, This is found to be a highly insulting terms for many individuals from a nomadic background and heritage. When speaking of Irish Travellers, the more appropriate words used, in respect of the community and its individuals, are that of “Traveller” and the cultural terms of “Pavee” and “Minceir”.
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It seemed to of cropped the first para:
…
While I have no knowledge of Pavee Points and the Clondalkin Traveller PHC’s arrangements, the LGBT Pavee group had requested, due to numbers, to walk with ITM in the parade.
🙂
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