Q + A

Last night in Trinity College Dublin, Panti Bliss was in conversation with rugby star Gareth Thomas who shared his story growing up gay in Wales, coming out and his experience telling the world that he is living with HIV.

GCN, in conjunction with TENI and the #CALLITOUT campaign, presented an evening of conversation exploring the complex and multifaceted nature of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia as experienced by LGBT+ people in today's Ireland. ‘Call It Out’ is a new civil society campaign to highlight and address the harm caused by homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in Ireland. The campaign is being led by the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (TENI) and the team from the Hate and Hostility Research Group at the University of Limerick. Despite recent positive changes for LGBT+ people in Ireland, many still experience harassment and intimidation simply because of who they are. The results of a survey conducted by HHRG showed that while only 36% of respondents believed that violence against the LGBT+ community is a serious problem in this country, it reported that in actuality, one in five, or 21% of those surveyed, have been punched, hit or physically attacked in public for being LGBT+. The panel of guests Ellen Murray, Brendan Courtney, Paddy Smyth - My Disabled Life and Shubhangi Karmakar spoke in conversation with the journalist and Author, Una Mullally.

The world is in ecological crisis: we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown. This is an emergency. As part of our inaugural Global edition of GCN, we got together with Extinction Rebellion in the Project Art Centre to host an evening of information, learning, conversation and action around what each of us can do to effect meaningful change to reverse the damage done to our planet. Here is a flavour of the evening.

Recorded in Smock Alley theatre, Panti Bliss and Professor Mulcahy discuss the legacy of three decades of AIDS activisim in Ireland to mark 30 years of World AIDS Day.

This month’s Q+A is an unmissable, in-depth interview with legendary LGBT+ rights activist Peter Tatchell. One of the first out gay men to stand for election in Britain, Tatchell has been campaigning for human rights vociferously and courageously for nearly half a century.  Peter began his gay activism by joining the Gay Liberation Front in England in 1969, and was one of the organisers of the first Pride march in London in 1972. In the 1990s he co-founded the gay rights direct action group, Outrage!, which was involved in the infamous ‘outing’ campaigns of the mid-90s. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.  He’s campaigned on many different fronts, and often put himself in danger. In June he was detained in Russia after staging a one-man protest against Russia’s treatment of LGBT people, and most recently he’s been campaigning for compensation for gay men who were pardoned after being convicted under Britain’s laws against homosexuality. From human rights in Syria to Gaza, Iran to Russia, and across the globe, there is little that escapes Peter Tatchell’s attention, and action.  Here chats to Q+A’s Brian Finnegan about his life and times, and overcoming fear to put himself in harm’s way for other people’s human rights.

In this episode of Q+A, GCN’s Queer and Alternative podcast, we meet the legendary American novelist, historian, playwright, and early chronicler of the AIDS crisis, Sarah Schulman. The author of 11 novels, six non-fiction books, and two plays, as an activist and organiser, Schulman joined ACT UP in 1987. She co-founded the Lesbian Avengers, was a key organiser for the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organisation's efforts to march in the New York Saint Patrick's Day Parade; and with Jim Hubbard created the ACT UP Oral History Project. “I’m super jet-lagged but maybe that will make me freer,” Sarah says as she sits down in our podcast studio with GCN editor, Brian Finnegan, to discuss (among a lot of other things) how coming from a holocaust family fused her love of writing and passion for activism together, the problem with religious fundamentalism in Trump’s America, activism in the age of the hashtag and the t-shirt, the growing criminalisation of HIV positive people across the world, and the possibility that her 30 year-old her lesbian detective novel, After Dolores may become a movie.  Music by Will St Leger and Faune

In this very special episode of Q+A, GCN’s Queer and Alternative podcast, we’re celebrating 30 years of publication for GCN, which was co-founded by activist Tonie Walsh in 1988 as a free information service for a pre-Internet queer community. Three decades on, Q+A host and current editor Brian Finnegan sits down to chat with Walsh about the beginnings of Ireland’s gay press in a burnt out building in Dublin’s Temple Bar, and how GCN has evolved between then and now. They’re joined by Deborah Ballard, who edited the publication in the mid-90s, for lots of laughter, reminiscence, great stories, and general chit-chat about the oldest free LGBT+ community publication in the world. Music by Will St Leger and Faune

The fourth installment of Q+A, GCN’s Queer and Alternative podcast is an International Women's Day special, hosted by Lisa Connell. For this month’s Q+A podcast, we sit down with two trailblazing activists to discuss the intersectional nature of the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment and the LGBT+ community. In celebration of 2018's International Women's Day, our very own GCN staffer, Lisa Connell has a conversation with Irish Times journalist Una Mullally, and campaigner Anna Cosgrave, both prominent femininist activists in Ireland. They discuss how and why abortion rights in Ireland are a queer issue and celebrate the fact that LGBT+ folk are on the frontlines of social justice in the country.  Music by Will St. Leger and Faune.

For this month’s Q+A podcast, we sat down for the fat chats with Michelle Visage, who just happened to be here to film Ireland’s Got Talent. She wanted to talk to GCN from the outset, and she had things to get off her chest, especially in the light of Trump’s America. “What I loved most about Michelle was the way she focused all her attention on getting her message about inclusivity across,” says editor, Brian Finnegan, who sits behind the mic. “In her role on RuPaul’s Drag Race she’s a mentor to many queer men who’ve been rejected by their families, and as that show is broadcast across the world, she’s become kind of beacon to LGBT’s [...]

The second episode of Q+A, GCN’s Queer and Alternative podcast is a special exploring the game-changing developments for men who have sex with men in 2017. We meet passionate HIV positive activist, Robbie Lawlor, and his partner of four years, Maurice Leahy, who are spreading the word about U=U, the fact that a positive person on medication with an undetectable viral load cannot pass on the virus. Robbie and Maurice talk candidly about their relationship and sex life, and how U=U freed them from fear. Then ACT UP Dublin’s Will St Leger pops into the studio to talk about the landmark developments in provision of PrEP in Ireland, a drug that reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90%. Tune in and learn more!

Presented by GCN’s editor in chief, Brian ‘the host with the most’ Finnegan, the inaugural episode of Q+A: The Queer and Alternative Podcast features best mates Rory O’Neill (aka Panti Bliss) and designer Niall Sweeney, chatting about their iconic contribution to Dublin’s gay scene, from halcyon days of performing outrageous acts together on the stage of their fetish club, GAG, through the creation of ’90s super-club Powderbubble and the legendary dragathon that was Alternative Miss Ireland, to the creative thinking behind the launch of Pantibar, which celebrates ten years pulling pints, and more, this month. It’s a conversation peppered with anecdotes, laughs, nostalgia and attitude, and as GCN’s first ever broadcast, a little piece of history in itself. Music: www.bensound.com