GLYNI – Gay and Lesbian Youth Northern Ireland

Lifetime GLYNI member Erin McKenna will appear on the September edition of GCN(Gay Community News)

The American Beauty will appear alongside members from BeLonG To! (Dublin) and shOUT! (Galway) in an annual youth GCN photo-shoot. Erin talks briefly about her time at GLYNI and the hard work she has done for Carafriend. Posing with some dazzling outfits, Erin takes an amazing picture. She wears a variety of different clothes including a sexy army officer hat and a “Ramones” T-shirt. Yes Madam! The lovely Erin is not only vivacious in her shoot but a great friend to all at GLYNI.

We also would like to wish Erin the best of luck back in America. She is truly an amazing person, a true Role-Model and a credit to all young lesbian girls out there.

So Good luck Erin! We will miss you.

The September edition of GCN will be available from the 8th September 2008

James C

Tags: belong to, gcn, GLYNI Events, photos

First Minister to authorise grants despite wife’s outspoken comments

By David Gordon
Thursday, 28 August 2008

The government department headed by Peter Robinson is due to provide £80,000 to gay groups within the next seven months — despite his wife’s controversial views on homosexuality.

Officials have also confirmed that Stormont grant-aid totalling £100,000 was allocated to the gay sector during Ian Paisley’s period as First Minister.

It has further been revealed that money from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) helped fund this year’s Gay Pride parade in Belfast.

The ongoing OFMDFM allocations are part of a £230,000 package put in place under direct rule by then Secretary of State Peter Hain.

This scheme has continued under devolution, alongside rows over anti-gay comments by prominent DUP politicians — including MLA Iris Robinson, the First Minister’s wife.

Mrs Robinson was widely condemned after branding homosexuality an “abomination” in June this year.

Fellow DUP MLA Ian Paisley Jnr caused a similar controversy last year by saying he was “pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism”.

An official breakdown of Stormont allocations to the gay sector under devolution has been provided in an OFMDFM Freedom of Information disclosure, seen by the Belfast Telegraph.

The £230,000 package is administered by the Coalition on Sexual Orientation (CoSO), an umbrella organisation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups across the province.

The OFMDFM Freedom of Information response said £150,000 of the £230,000 total had been provided to date by the Department. Of this sum, £50,000 was paid in March 2007, two months before devolution was restored.

The Department stated there were two further £50,000 allocations for the gay groups — in July 2007 and February 2008.

Dr Paisley was First Minister at these times. He led a “Save Ulster from Sodomy” campaign in the 1970s, in a failed attempt to prevent the legalisation of gay sex in Northern Ireland.

The OFMDFM Freedom of Information response also stated that the remaining £80,000 from the £230,000 package will be provided by the Department before the end of March next year.

The Assembly was told earlier this month that £10,000 from the package was spent on the Gay Pride parades of the last two years.

Participants in this year’s event, on August 2, mocked the First Minister’s wife. Some wore Iris Robinson masks, while an “Iris float” featuring a papier mache image of her, joined the parade.

In a reply to a written Assembly question, Mr Robinson and Martin McGuinness stated: “The Coalition on Sexual Orientation (CoSO) contributed to the 2007 and 2008 Belfast Gay Pride Parade, awarding £5,750 and £5,000, from a fund of £230,000 which was awarded by the previous Direct Rule administration.”

Tags: funding, iris robinson, peter robinson

Drug use amongst Ireland’s teenage and young adult population has emerged as a growing concern for those involved in health, education, social welfare and criminal justice areas. Those working with young LGBT people, in particular, are concerned that anecdotal evidence points to particularly high levels of recreational drug taking amongst this section of the community deriving from an array of psychological, environmental, social and experiential risk factors.

A considerable amount of research has been conducted abroad that probes levels of drug taking and routes into drug use amongst the LGBT community. Yet there is a complete absence of comparable research here and we are left with a rather vague notion that there is a serious problem, rather than the type of sophisticated appreciation that emerges from systematic research that can be used to formulate policy and initiatives.

This study represents an initial step towards addressing this dearth of research. BeLonG To Youth Project, Ireland’s only designated LGBT youth service, secured funding through Pobal to commission research with young LGBT people between the ages of 18 and 26 to determine a) the extent and causes of drug use amongst this client group b) the impact of drugs on young people and c) the type of service response that is appropriate to meet the needs of those who are currently using drugs or who may potentially begin to do so in the future. As a general aspiration, the research strives to provide evidence that can support the development of BeLonG To services for young LGBT drug users.

A three phase research methodology was employed. In Phase 1 interviews were held with 12 young LGBT drug users to record their personal experiences of drug use. A small number of interviews were also conducted with the staff at BeLonG To and other stakeholders to get a service-provider perspective. Themes emerging from these interviews were then explored further in a focus group setting (Phase 2) with 32 participants (in five focus group sessions). Themes emerging in Phase 1 and 2, together with themes emerging from international literature, were then incorporated into an on-line questionnaire which was completed by 173 respondents between August and mid-October 2006.

Overview Of Findings

While recognising that alcohol is a drug, and that alcohol abuse is a growing problem within the LGBT community, for the purposes of this research it was excluded from our definition of ‘drugs’. Thus when used in this report, the term ‘drugs’ refers to ‘any psychoactive substance, excluding alcohol’.

Section C of this report provides detailed analyses of the on-line survey set in the context of testimonies recorded during focus groups and interviews. Headline findings from the survey include the following.

* 65 per cent of LGBT youth have had some experience of drug taking.
* 21 per cent have systematically used drugs (i.e. have done so on more than 60 occasions).
* 60 per cent had taken drugs over the 12 months preceding the survey.
* 40 per cent had used drugs in the preceding month and 29 per cent in the seven days leading up to the survey.
* 56 per cent of LGBT youth have some history of taking cannabis, 44 per cent poppers, 33 per cent ecstasy and 32 per cent cocaine.
* 89 per cent reported that they had been offered drugs at some point in the past.
* 65 per cent said that they had wanted to try drugs at some stage in their lives.
* 21 per cent of drug users either always or frequently mix their drugs on a night out (i.e. are polydrug users).
* 80 per cent of drug takers attributed their motivations for first trying drugs to curiosity. Eight per cent linked it to issues relating to their sexuality.
* 49 per cent of drug takers experienced blackouts resulting from drug taking. * 46 per cent of drug takers had engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse attributed to drug taking.
* 11 per cent of drug users had been sexually assaulted while ‘incapacitated due to drugs’.

These findings would tend to suggest that drug use is widespread amongst LGBT young people and is more prevalent than recorded in comparable studies probing drug taking within the youth population generally.

Tags: drugs, lgbt, research