GLYNI – Gay and Lesbian Youth Northern Ireland

Hi guys,

As those who attended monday’s workshop, previously, you will remember that, we where treated to a stonewall production , named FIT. For those who did not attend, I hope you will forgive me for giving a rather brief description.

The film dealt mainly with how students at school,percieve and stereotype,  what “being gay” actually is, and therefore deals with the negative attiutdes, that still exsist in many schools across the United Kingdom today, despite the many changes which have taken place for LGBT rights.

(more…)

Tags: FIT, Review, stonewall

PostSecret was born out of an art project by a man interested in giving the world a way to express their deepest secrets that they have never let anyone know about before. Since the day it began this has become a huge, worldwide project with over 250,000 people sending their secrets to Frank Warren in Germantown, Maryland, USA. The project gives people the chance to liberate themselves from a secret but spreading it but without having to tell the world who they are. The website which posts a variety of these secrets every week can be found simply at www.postsecret.com

I find this project personally quite inspirational. It gives so many people hope that others are like them and gives so many people the chance to set themselves free or to tell the world of their aspirations and dreams. Check it out!

Check out the video: you might like it and get hooked like already have!

Tags: PostSecret

Some 8,000 people were killed at Srebrenica in 1995

(From BBC News)

Dutch officials have rejected a retired US general’s claim that its forces failed at Srebrenica because of poor morale over openly gay soldiers.

A defence ministry spokesman dismissed as “complete nonsense” the remarks by John Sheehan, a former Nato commander.

Gen Sheehan had been speaking at a US Senate hearing on allowing gay people to serve openly in the US military.

He said Dutch leaders had told him that the presence of gay soldiers had contributed to the Bosnian massacre.

Srebrenica was a UN safe haven under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers when, in 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the town, killing some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Gen Sheehan said the former chief of staff of the Dutch army had told him that the presence of openly gay soldiers in the Dutch peacekeeping force were seen as “part of the problem” which contributed to the fall of Srebrenica.

He argued that since the end of the Cold War, European militaries had changed and he concluded “there was no longer a need for an active combat capability”.

‘Totally off-target’

This “socialisation” process, Gen Sheehan said, “included open homosexuality” and led to “a focus on peacekeeping operations because they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back”.

Gen Sheehan is a former Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic

“It is astonishing that a man of his stature can utter such complete nonsense,” Dutch defence ministry spokesman Roger van de Wetering said in response.

“The Srebrenica massacre and the involvement of UN soldiers was extensively investigated by the Netherlands, international organisations and the United Nations.

“Never was there in any way concluded that the sexual orientation of soldiers played a role.”

The Dutch ambassador to the US, Renee Jones-Bos, added in a statement on the embassy’s website that she “couldn’t disagree more” with the claims by the former general, who retired from the military in 1997.

In the US Senate itself, Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told Gen Sheehan he was “totally off-target”.

Several countries – including Britain, Canada, Australia and Israel – allow openly gay people to serve in the armed services.

Tags: denmark, don't ask don't tell, military, usa

SPRING!

Tags: belfast film festival, coming out, film, homophobia, lgbt, queen's university belfast

Belfast City Council has chosen not to renew Mynt’s late alcohol license when it was up for renewal during last week. The council made its decision after police objected to Mynt’s application, based on allegations of customer drug use, assaults occurring and alcohol served out of hours.

Whilst it is certainly true that for a while Mynt got a bad rep due to many police raids searching for drugs. It is unclear whether these raids turned up anything to note more than I imagine you would find in any Belfast club.

A council statement given to the BBC said the licensing committee “took the view that in light of the available evidence, the applicant was unfit to hold a licence”.

A spokeswoman for Mynt said that whilst they are extremely disappointed with the decision, they will be appealing the decision and that since an appeal is pending, the club can continue to trade with its current license in the meantime.

Peace, out!
- Matt

Tags: alcohol, belfast city council, license, mynt, police

OK, so after seeing Lady Gaga in concert I was looking forward to seeing her latest video featuring Beyonce. I have to say it is in summary a good music video, all be it a little long, coming in at just under 10 minutes.

It shows Lady Gaga in prison (maybe for the murder she committed in her paparazzi video?). There is a comment from the prison wardens about her lack of ‘penis’ and after a few more shots and a phone call from Beyonce the song begins (3 minutes into the video).  It then shows Beyonce bailing out Lady Gaga and then they pull up to a typical American diner, where Beyonce places poison in a guys coffee. After that it shows Lady Gaga poisoning his food, and the food of everyone in the diner. After they all die the duo dance and then run off in the ‘pussy wagon’.

There are several adverts in the video for Virgin Mobile, plentyoffish.com and Coca Cola. However the story of the video is actually quite good and entertaining.

Maybe there is some truth behind Lady Gaga’s bankruptcy rumour, as most of her costumes in the video are recycled from her current tour.

You can check the video out yourself on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY

So in conclusion, was the video worth the wait and hype? Well i think yes, although it could have been a bit shorter.

Tags: beyonce, lady gaga, music video, telephone

See our calendar for events in GLYNI over the next few months.

We have everything, from the special screening of Stonewall’s new FIT film, to creating an effective Anti-Homophobic Bullying Campaign for NI, from meeting with the NIABF Coordinator to meetings with Family Ties and Brook Clinic, as well as inviting the Children’s Commissioner to meet the members on May 17th, to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Over the next couple months, GLYNI will also be planning our participation in Belfast Pride, as well as continuing to update our website and create a fabulous newsletter.

Our drop-in continues to run on Friday nights, with our Peer Educators in training on Friday nights.

It’s all a buzz at GLYNI. So if you’re young (aged 14-25) and L G B or T, or somewhere in between but not quite ‘straight’, feel free to come along. You can join GLYNI through our website!!

Tags: activism, belfast pride, brook clinic, bullying, campaign, coming out, film, FIT, funding, GLYNI Events, homophobia, IDAHO, lgbt, politics, uk, website

Well I was lucky enough to get the chance at an advance screening of this gay-themed film, so that I could review it for the website. As I know how annoying it is for someone to tell you ANYTHING about a film before you see it, if you don’t wanna know, then don’t click ‘read more’ below :P

(more…)

Tags: comedy, ewan mcgregor, film, film review, gay-themed, i love you phillip morris, jim carrey, romance

A conservative US state senator who has voted against gay rights consistently during his 14 years in government has came ‘out of the closet’ – he is gay!

Republican Roy Ashburn came out during a radio interview in California, for KERN radio, where he said, “I am gay… those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.”

The 55-year-old divorced father-of-four has been on leave since an arrest last week on suspicion of driving under the influence. He said that his coming out was prompted by rumours that he had visited a gay nightclub before the arrest, which took place in Sacramento on 3 March, and felt he needed to address these rumours. So, I guess that means that the rumours were true :P

He insists that his voting on the gay rights bills reflected the way his constituents wanted him to vote, i.e. on their behalf, rather than him voting on his own “internal conflict”. (Pity he couldn’t make a stand, maybe stick to his own convictions, though I guess we sometimes punish politicians for doing just that as well. Hmm.)

Roy has a record for voting against gay rights measures. Last year, Mr Ashburn opposed a bill to establish a day of recognition to honour murdered gay rights activist Harvey Milk. He has also voted in the statehouse against efforts to expand anti-discrimination laws and recognise out-of-state gay marriages.

Peace, out! – Matt

Tags: celebrity, coming out, gay rights, politics

Welcome!

Hey and welcome everyone to our newly designed website! We hope you like it, there are still a few things to be tweaked here and there but it’s about time it was unveiled!

You can still get access to all the information from before using the links across the top of the page. This information will soon be undergoing a major refresh and update – so keep coming back! You can also still get the most up-to-date GLYNI event schedule, it is now over on the right of your screen, and PinkNews is still shown on the right too.
New features are aplenty – now, anyone can register for our blog, we want everyone to be able to submit their content and have it displayed proudly on our website. We will have members only discussion pages on various issues, with commenting enabled across all the posts you can leave your feedback on any of our articles as well as submit your own in a simple to use web interface – it’s just as easy as Facebook!

We hope these new features will make up for the temporary suspension of new registrations on our GLYNI Message Board / Forum. Unfortunately, it has been deluged by Russian spambots since this time last year… :( so I have taken the step of preventing new sign-ups. Current users can still access, and all the posts are intact – I removed all the spam (I think!). I will keep it this way until we make a decision on where to go from here with the forums. In the meantime, you have plenty of ways to make your voice heard!

Contribute!

“So Matt, how do I contribute?” I hear you ask? Couldn’t be easier! Firstly, comments are enabled on all pages and posts, meaning you can leave your feedback either anonymously or, if you want people to know who you are ;), you can register for a GLYNI account by using the link *on the right*!

What does registering get you? Well it means that no-one can pose as you in discussions of course :P! If you also have a Gravatar account associated with your email address, your avatar will be shown on comments you make and, in the future, posts you make.
Speaking of posts, did I mention that registered members can submit their own articles, reviews, posts, thoughts, announcements and much more, AND have it displayed right on our homepage? Not only that, but as the website grows, members will gain access to the members only discussion pages, where we could discuss anything and everything?

It really is an exciting new chapter for our website, one which we hope that you will help us create – so sign up now!

Peace out!
-Matt

Tags: content, contribution, GLYNI Events, register, website