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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters

offsite link Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home

offsite link British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.

Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,

offsite link It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.

offsite link [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.

The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Kneecap ?Two-Tier Justice? Row After Glastonbury Case Dropped by Police Fri Jul 18, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
Police have closed the criminal investigation into Kneecap?s Glastonbury performance, where the band called for a "riot outside court", prompting criticism of "two-tier justice" by the Shadow Home Secretary.
The post Kneecap ‘Two-Tier Justice’ Row After Glastonbury Case Dropped by Police appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Epping Protesters Have Had Enough of Being Ignored and Lied To Fri Jul 18, 2025 15:00 | David Shipley
Last night's violence in Epping is the desperate cry of people who have been ignored for decades, says David Shipley. Violence must be condemned. But if the state doesn?t change course, and fast, we will see many Eppings.
The post The Epping Protesters Have Had Enough of Being Ignored and Lied To appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link From Vaccine Passports in 2021 to ?Britcard? in 2025 ? Why We Need a Digital Bill of Rights Fri Jul 18, 2025 13:00 | Alan Miller
From vaccine passports in 2021 to 'Britcard' digital ID in 2025, it's becoming clear we need a Digital Bill of Rights to protect us from being brought under the technocratic grip of a surveillance state, says Alan Miller.
The post From Vaccine Passports in 2021 to ‘Britcard’ in 2025 ? Why We Need a Digital Bill of Rights appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why is Modernity so Ugly? Fri Jul 18, 2025 11:00 | Joanna Gray
Why is the modern world so unremittingly ugly, wonders Joanna Gray. As yet another interchangeable block of beige bricks springs up in town, the contrast with the glories of the structures our ancestors built is damning.
The post Why is Modernity so Ugly? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Climate Consensus Died in Parliament This Week Fri Jul 18, 2025 09:00 | Ben Pile
This was the week that the climate consensus died in Parliament, says Ben Pile. In the debate that followed Ed Miliband's statement on "nature and climate" something new was heard in the House of Commons: dissent.
The post The Climate Consensus Died in Parliament This Week appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Homophobia in UCD

category dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Wednesday February 18, 2004 01:30author by reeuq - ucdsuauthor email riotspace at yahoo dot ca Report this post to the editors

“What is the use of rainbow week” is the title of a tread on the UCD student union message board. Followed by a comment that says “I don't know if the scrawls on the posters were homophobic - sounds like it was people who think it's funny to slag gay people, not necessarily homophobes!” Reading this makes me think of this Le Tigre song Tres bien and the line “because they will try to convince us that we have arrived, that we are already there, that it has happened. Because we need to live in the place where we are truly alive, present, safe and accounted for.”

It’s true that the song is referring to people who say that there is equality between the sexes already and who do not see the institutional and personal forms of sexism and the patriotic society that we are living in. The sentiment can be used to explore the homophobia and heterosexism that are blatant at UCD.

People question the need for rainbow week, they question the need of an LGB society and they say that sexuality doesn’t matter and wonder why we are making a big deal of it. Well first of all the all the comments on the rainbow week posters, the sabot posters and so on show that ‘slagging’ gay people in other words homophobia is the main form of insults used on this campus. It is so commonplace that not only do we see it everywhere it is so normalised that people don’t see it as an issue. But these comments on the posters are just the beginning.

First of all, the rainbow week posters have been targeted and ripped down when others have not. They have been postered over when others were left. They have generated complaints that included that the posters with two boys kissing and slogans like “closets are for clothes” “love is a good thing” and “what are you afraid of” are offensive and flaunting our sexuality in their face. With typical comments like “I have no problem with gays just keep it in the bedroom”. Well I say I’m sorry if seeing us holding hands and kissing marginalizes you, your whole culture marginalizes us.

What presents it self as a deeper problem is the comments that some staff members are making. These are the people who are suppose to be role models, leaders, teachers and those who are suppose to support us on our journeys. For some of the staff these journeys consist of “spiritual guidance” that will help us with the “wrong” acts and behaviours that we partake in. For others talk of anything outside of heteronormativiety will bring acquisitions of sexual assault. As if homoSEXuality is only about sex and heterosexuality is so ingrained into institutions such as marriage that is has become asexual. And finally there are staff who say comments such as; “it is one thing to be deviant. Yet it is quite another to try to convince people that it is ok.”

This hate and ignorance that is generated from staff members is a very clear reason why rainbow week is needed, it is a clear reason why things like the positive space stickers need to be put up and it is a very clear image that “it” has not already happened.

author by Dermot Lpublication date Mon Feb 23, 2004 19:14author address author phone Report this post to the editors

One particularly homophobic post had to be deleted from the boards. Fear of non-heterosexuality seems, alas, to be alive and well in UCD and elsewhere.

Related Link: http://ucdsu.proboards20.com
author by Ianpublication date Fri Feb 20, 2004 17:46author address author phone Report this post to the editors

What would you rather as a title for Rainbow Week, Greg? "Week to counter the ignorant and discriminatory attitudes of others towards non-heterosexuality Week"? "Dealing with the bullshit of homophobic members of society in as positive a way as you can Week"? The name "Rainbow Week" somehow beat these other gems.

Your perception of the LGB Society as a "Will and Grace" centre reflects your own homophobic attitude towards a society that simpy aims to try and make life for lesbian, gay and bisexual students a little less dificult; it is not a reflection on the society. If you bothered to open your mind maybe you could see something other than a tv character in LGB students. This campaign plays a very important role for those who, although they may not even be members of the Soc, feel encouragement from the visible fact that there are other gay people on campus. We feel solidarity through positive posters is more appropriate than the gay population being identified by wearing pink triangles. But maybe you'd prefer that?

author by juNOONi- UCDpublication date Thu Feb 19, 2004 18:37author address author phone Report this post to the editors

It's a sign of your enculturated prejudice if you fail to appreciate the purpose of Rainbow Week. Do you also perhaps question the need to hold a womyn's week? cultural diversity week?

Can you at all appreciate the sense of threat and fear experienced sometimes on a daily basis by womyn, people of colour, &/or homosexuals? Ever been discriminated against or indeed physically assaulted for the colour of your skin? your sexual orientaion? raped?

No? surprise, surprise....

UCD's Rainbow Week Positive Space campaign sought to highlight the need to create a safe environment in which staff, students can live, work, study regardless of their sexual orientation. It followed and built upon the initiatives of Cultural Diversity and Womyn's weeks.

My question for you Greg is, given the appalling and absolutely disgusting (need I add hostile?) homophobic responses by certain UCD lecturers and students, would an openly gay student/staff member now not feel a greater level of threat at UCD?

Is that acceptable to you?

Does it not only expose the deeply held prejudicial attitudes (and discriminatory actions!) of certain staff and students against others based on sexual orientation?

Is that acceptable to you?

And finally, does it not, as Reeuq pointed out, only expose the need for and importance of the positive space campaign?

***Well done to all the heads involved in the Rainbow Week campaign. You're my heros!***

author by reiltinpublication date Thu Feb 19, 2004 17:37author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Greg, firstly I'm personally enraged by your slating of the title of the week. It used to be called Anti-Homophobia Week, but that was changed to a more unlifting & positive name this year, assumably because it was thought that todays world is more accepting. I'm not even going to touch the rediculous "gay mafia" thing. Do you listen to yourself when you're thinking or just say the first imbecilic thing that jumps into your head?
The point is to try & reach as many people as possible. If they don't identify with the people in the society, that's fine. Information is provided of lots of the different LGBTQ organisations, eg Gay Switchboard, all of whom can provide help, support, etc, if needed. Often, the only "identifying with" someone needs to do, is to realise that they are not the only LGBTQ person around. It's enough for some people to know that they are not alone. That simple fact can give someone the encouragement they need to come out to themselves & others.
Nobody needs to scour the internet for anti-LGBTQ messages when they are being e-mailed to the people running the campaign. It is enough for posters to be put up, to get homophobic graffiti. Nobody wants the offensive (& why you've put that in inverted commas I don't know because being called deviant actually is offensive) messages to come, but they do. And they have to be dealt with as quickly as possible so that people know that it's not ok to be homophobic or to demean other people. This is especially important for people in positions of power, like lecturers, to know. It is not acceptable. And we will fight back.

author by Gregpublication date Wed Feb 18, 2004 21:21author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I haven't read the forum; there were probably some weirdos on it. But back to the main point: rainbow week.

I think it's very valid to ask what is its point? It's all very well but it does not suit someone struggling with their sexuality who does not identify with the people in the society, or those organising the Rainbow Week (dumb title) or Pride or whatever stupid name the gay
mafia comes up with.

Thing like Rainbow Week but people into boxes; by being part of them you are joining the Will & Grace school of gayness. So people do have a right to question this. Seems to me a lot of the Rainbow Week people are scouring the internet for anti-Rainbow messages, waiting to find something 'offensive'

author by Archbishop Mc Quaidpublication date Wed Feb 18, 2004 16:31author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Arch Homophobes still organised in UCD.
Investigate?

author by sospublication date Wed Feb 18, 2004 13:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors

More here:
http://www.gcn.ie/newgcn/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1503

I don't really know how to take it.

author by Browserpublication date Wed Feb 18, 2004 03:03author address author phone Report this post to the editors

If I learned one thing there, it is that all the talk of university 'broadening the mind' is rubbish when it comes to sexuality! Could it be that universities, which one might expect to be the perfect arena for exploring your sexuality with others of a similar mind, are actually among the most homophobic institutions in the State? Anyone from the other colleges have an opinion on this?

author by chepublication date Wed Feb 18, 2004 02:20author address author phone Report this post to the editors

any social order that attempts to manage unmanageable sexual impulses by punishing the people who elicit them: a foolproof recipe for hell on earth.

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