IRSCNA: LGBT Pride Solidarity -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Fri, Jun 26 2009, 18:48:06 PDT
Author: Danielle Ni Dhighe
Subject: IRSCNA: LGBT Pride Solidarity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

26 June 2009
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America

LGBT Pride Solidarity

On behalf of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, the Irish
Republican Socialist Committees of North America send solidarity
greetings to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people on the
occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion that marked
the birth of the gay liberation and gay pride movements in America and
worldwide.

The Stonewall Rebellion began on 28 June 1969 when New York City
police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the Greenwich Village
neighborhood that catered to gay and transgender customers. Unlike
previous raids, this time the patrons fought back. The Rebellion grew
to involve 2,000 protesters doing battle with 400 police officers over
several nights. The chant of "Gay Power!" became a rallying cry for
oppressed sexual minorities worldwide.

Many of the patrons of the Stonewall Inn were Black and/or Hispanic,
thus placing the Rebellion firmly in the broader context of the social
uprisings of Blacks and Hispanics against oppression in 1960s America.

After two decades of struggle by gay rights activists in the southern
Twenty-Six Counties of Ireland, homosexuality was decriminalized in
1993 after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the southern
statelet was in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Although further gains have been made in the area of legal rights,
including a civil partnership bill passed just today, violence
against sexual minorities is still common, even more so in the
British-occupied northern Six Counties.

A recent study conducted by the Rainbow Project in the Six Counties
found that 64% of homophobic attacks go unreported, 39% of LGBT
people worry about being victimized by crime, 39% alter their
behavior to convey the impression they are heterosexual for reasons
of safety, 21% of gay and bisexual males and 18% of lesbian and
bisexual women said they suffered homophobic attacks in the last
three years, 30% of those experiencing homophobic hate incidents in
the last three years were physically injured while 29% were
psychologically traumatized, and 21% said they experienced problems
with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

In the Twenty-Six Counties, research by the Gay and Lesbian Equality
Network and BeLonG To Youth Service found that 80% of LGBT people
have suffered verbal abuse, 40% have been threatened with physical
violence, and 25% have actually suffered physical violence because of
their sexual and/or gender orientation.

For almost thirty-five years, the Irish Republican Socialist Party,
representing the political leadership of the Irish Republican
Socialist Movement, has supported equality for gays and lesbians,
beginning with the party's first convention in 1975, when along with
People's Democracy it became one of the first political parties in
Ireland to support gay rights.

The IRSP became the first political party in Ireland to explicitly
include bisexuals and transgender people in an equality statement
passed at its 2000 convention, which stated, "The IRSP affirms its
commitment to full equality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and
transgender people."

On behalf of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, the Irish
Republican Socialist Committees of North America demand full equality
for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people in all spheres
of life, in America, Ireland, and worldwide.

Full equality in all spheres of life means we support the right of
LGBT people to adopt children and to marry, rights that are taken for
granted by heterosexuals. Special privileges for heterosexuals must
be eliminated.

Further, we demand that rights and privileges ultimately be detached
from marital status, and that family relationships be defined by the
people in them, not the state. People's rights should not be
determined by their willingness or ability to participate in state
sanctioned arrangements.

We condemn all physical and legalistic attacks on LGBT people, and we
stand in solidarity with the victims of homophobic, biphobic, and
transphobic violence. We demand an end to all violence and
intimidation against LGBT people, including mistreatment by police
and other state authorities.

We demand that all people regardless of age have free access to
information about their bodies and sexual health, unfettered by
political and religious doctrines that transform natural human
bodily functions into matters of shame or disease.

We demand that the medical and psychiatric establishments stop
enforcing sex/gender apartheid through the creation of false diseases
and the denial of medical care.

We believe each human being has an inherent right to define their own
sexuality, whether it's lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual, or
whatever label they choose to apply to themselves, and we believe each
human being has an inherent right to define their gender identity.

Solidarity and pride! Equality for all!

# # #

Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
PO Box 901479
Kansas City MO 64190-1479
USA
irscna@irsm.org
http://www.irscna.org/
http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html

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