Homophobia in UCD

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Wednesday February 18, 2004 01:30

by reeuq - ucdsu

riotspace at yahoo dot ca

“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.

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Comments (9 of 9)

foolproof recipe

by che

Wed Feb 18, 2004 02:20

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

It was the same in UL

by Browser

Wed Feb 18, 2004 03:03

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?

More info

by sos

Wed Feb 18, 2004 13:06

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

I don't really know how to take it.

Opus Dei Underground in UCD

by Archbishop Mc Quaid

Wed Feb 18, 2004 16:31

Arch Homophobes still organised in UCD.
Investigate?

Hmmm

by Greg

Wed Feb 18, 2004 21:21

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'

The main point, indeed

by reiltin

Thu Feb 19, 2004 17:37

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.

Dear Greg...

by juNOONi- UCD

Thu Feb 19, 2004 18:37

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!***

Rainbow Week: Reply to Greg

by Ian

Fri Feb 20, 2004 17:46

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?

SU Message Boards

by Dermot L

Mon Feb 23, 2004 19:14

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.

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Comments (9 of 9)