Workers Solidarity Movement

This is a personal account from a member who was recently subjected to a sexist, homophobic attack. This post mentions male violence, anti-choice mentality, and the toxicity of masculinity.

Toxic masculinity has been a trending topic of discussion lately with the case of Brock Turner who raped an unconscious woman and received a meagre 3 months in jail for his atrocious crime, and the homophobic Orlando shooting committed by Omar Mateen a week ago which claimed the lives of 49 people and injured over 50.

The audio recording of the Bodily Autonomy at the Intersections panel at the 11th Dublin Anarchist bookfair.

For the first time in the history of the Northern Irish state a majority of MLAs have voted in favour of Marriage Equality. The motion, however, has fallen due to the DUP launching a Petition of Concern which blocks any passing of the motion to law.

Voting against the motion - as 52 politicians did - is one thing, but guaranteeing its failure in spite of a winning majority vote reveals the homophobic, bigoted and bitter nature of the DUP.

The issue of Marriage Equality is to be debated for the fifth time in Stormont today (Nov 2nd).  Yet again, however, the DUP has launched a Petition of Concern to ensure that should the motion be successful its legal passing will be blocked.

The Petition of Concern is a funny old thing. Sometimes it works in our favour, like when it was used earlier this year to block the DUP’s “Conscience Clause”, a clause which would have effectively blocked LGBT+ people and Queers from certain parts of society under the guise of “religious freedom”.

During the rise of HIV and Hepatitis B in the 70s and 80s the UK Government enforced a blanket ban on men who have sex with men donating blood.

In 2011 this ban was changed slightly - the ban would only last a year after a man had sex with another man, meaning that if any queer men wanted to donate blood they would have to abstain from sex with men for a year.

Thousands of people paraded through the streets of Dublin Saturday June 27th for LQBTQ Pride 2015.

Pride followed shortly after the overwhelming victory in the Marriage Equality referendum and some of the blocs and banners referenced that including a controveral 'Fuck Marriage; We want revenge" one.

I remember being in a tent at Electric Picnic perhaps 3 years ago when Christy Moore belted out the Pogues 'Thousands are Sailing' to 15,000 very emotional people. For sure there were other sources but a good part of the emotion was the sense that it was all happening again.

Its already clear (23 May, 10am) that the referendum has been passed, that there has been a Yes vote across the country, its now only a question of how big. We won't know the answer to that for hours.

We are confident with this call because not only are huge Yes tally being reported from Dublin (as high as 3:1) but very large Yes votes are also being reported from some rural boxes. There are others that are 50:50 or even thought to be slightly No but its clear these No's hope to counteract the huge Yes's from the cities, never mind the significant Yes votes that appear to have happened in many rural areas. Areas that voted against divorce are showing significant Yes votes.

In the last 24 hours anti-equality campaigners have been setting up fake Yes to equality Facebook pages and then posting links around to large groups like the 26,000 strong anti water charges group. The intention being to trick people into voting No by trying to give credence to the fevered imaginations of homophobes.

On Friday Ireland goes to the polls for a referendum to introduce Marriage equality, when it is passed Ireland will be the first country to introduce Marriage equality by popular vote. In the final days of campaigning the reactionary anti-equality crowd are becoming increasingly open about their homophobia as they become increasingly desperate in the face of defeat.