A gay auld time

I've noticed that I often use my blog to vent my anger and the thing is, I'm actually a pretty happy person! So on that note I'm going to tell you all about the fantastic weekend I just had! (Apologies for it being so long but there's just so much to say!)

Myself and my straight friend Tomato (this is the guy who first christened me Piney many moons ago, all I'll say is that he can get a bit flushed sometimes in the face and I went through a phase of having very spiky hair) went on a road trip to Dublin for this year's Gay Pride. Tomato drove us up (and supplied the music as I forgot my iPOD at home) and we even went about buying gay themed foods along the way. Unfortunately that didn't last long as they were all pretty manky (see picture, you can just visually taste the sugar and Es) and we couldn't find any nice puff pastries on the Cork-Dublin road **sigh**

To be fair we missed most of the actual walking part of the parade as we took a little detour through Mallow BUT we did make it for all of the speeches and music acts in the amphitheatre. This was my first time at an Irish parade as I'm always away/doing exams in May for the Cork one and it was amazing to see such a turn out! 12,000 people took part in all!!! A special mention has to go out to Miss Panti who was an amazingly hilarious hostess and started out the speeches with:

"If you're lesbian make some noise (crowd cheers)

If you're gay, make some noise (crowd cheers)

If you're bisexual, make a variable noise (crowd cheers)

If you're a trannie or deeply in love with one, make some noise (crowd cheers)

And if you don't feel like any of our previous labels fit you and at the same time you don't feel like you fit into the regular, grey heterosexual world and therefore you like to say you're queer,

MAKE SOME NOISE!!!

(crowd cheers the loudest)"

Having people translate the whole thing into sign language for the deaf LGBT community was fantastic to see as well and something I hadn't really thought of in advance. Well done girls (there were only 2 translators and they had a lot of work to do!!) The drag acts with Cher Guevara and Joanna Ryde (***BEST drag names EVER*** ) were brilliant as well, I'd highly recommend checking them out if they're in your area! A great dancer did a strikingly similar performance of Beyonce's "All the single ladies" too in a lurid pink leotard. I'd never heard of him before, but according to Miss Panti "he's the best thing to come out of Gran Canaria since hepatitis."

Overall I think the highlight of the night HAD to be this 5'2 Brazilian guy (we like to think he was called Santos) who followed (the very straight) Tomato around for the ENTIRE night! Talk about being keen??!! Tomato found the whole thing equally as funny and really enjoyed the whole weekend even though he was probably the only straight guy in the club! Isn't it great to have such cool friends???!!! I'm just the luckiest gay in the village!

It's important to mention the new civil partnership bill as well as this was heatedly discussed by everyone at the parade. Essentially everyone is divided in that some believe civil partnership is a stepping stone in the right direction (without the full rights of marriage) whilst others think marriage is the only way to go. Here's what the Irish Times had to say about it:

The Bill was compared to an “apartheid system” by the parade grand marshall, UCD academic and feminist activist Ailbhe Smyth. “We are not to be insulted and humiliated, we want marriage for lesbians and gays, our goal is equality,” she told the rally.
A copy of the Bill was ripped up to the cheers of the crowd by Anna McCarthy of protest organisation LGBT Noise. “Civil partnership will officially make us second class citizens in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of society,” she said. She urged the crowd to increase lobbying before the Bill was debated by the Dáil in the autumn.

Parade host Miss Panti (aka Rory O’Neill) spoke of the division in the LGBT community over the Civil Partnership Bill. “Some think it is a stepping stone to full equality, some disagree and think full equality is the only thing that we can accept, all agree that the proposed Bill does not go far enough,” Miss Panti said, urging the community not to become divided because they all had the same goal. “Anyone can get married in this country except you, any soccer hooligan, any gay basher, any fascist, any murderer, any sex offender can get married, but you cannot,” said Miss Panti.

Amnesty International also spoke out about the civil partnership proposal saying the bill completely ignores the rights of children as they're not even mentioned in it guys!!! This all makes me pretty angry (oh wait wasn't this supposed to be a cheerful blog!!??) so it'd be great if everyone could show up on August 9th for the demonstration against the bill!

All in all though, a gay time was had by all so HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE!!!!!