re: The Sindo and its gay-baiting

This was in response to this article: http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/loud-and-proud-gays-want-to-take-over-rest-of-society-2920975.html



Dear Editor,

As well as undermining the dignity and respect to which all couples, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity are entitled, Eamon Delaney in his article “Loud and Proud Gays want to take over society” managed to make some sweeping, hurtful statements about a community that resists generalisation. The basis for his opinions appears to be the gay nightlife of New York in which he immersed himself as a younger man and the magazines he has somehow managed to peruse in his research on “the gays”. If one was to form their opinion of the heterosexual community based solely on a jaunt to Copperface Jacks and a reading of Playboy, followed by a morning-after tea in the Shelbourne and a glance at “Irish Brides” magazine one could infer a similarly skewed and contradictory impression of the straight community.



Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people comprise approximately 10% of the population – in a city the size of Dublin alone that means over 50,000 openly claim or quietly struggle with LGBT identity. I challenge Mr. Delaney to take a random sample of this size of the non-LGBT community and find a consistency of sexual norms, preferences, political ideologies, economic circumstances, family values and background. I would be very interested in his findings.



Is mise le meas,

Rebecca Murphy
etc