Institutional Homophobia

I just came across this video online. Regardless of anybodies agendas(which is clear in this video), the documentary evidence presented in this video is absolutely staggering.

The Facts: (as per the video)
* A 15 year old youth is abandoned by his parents
* He is bullied in school
* He lives rough on the street
* Despite being informed of the situation, Social Services ignored his case
* He was subjected to routine police harassment

A 15 year old youth is systematically ignored, abused, hassled by a System which exists to protect all minors under its control regardless of a person's orientation is not only a failure on the part of the State but also a failure on the part of his parents.

The situation which this video poses, strikes a particular cord with me. In 2006, Johnny
released a report on LGBT Hate crimes in Ireland: Of that group surveyed, 41% had been victims of hate crimes* and of those attacks, 80% had not reported it to the authorities because it was felt that there was no point. What scared me last year about that figure was, that in the non-reporting of hate crimes, figures are askewed and do not accurately reflect the realities of being gay in Ireland, young, old or inbetween.

What links into this story about this particular youth in Cornwall, is the fact that a Northern Ireland Mental Health Study, in conjunction with SHOUT concluded that young gay males are five times more likely to be medicated for Depression, whilst one in three of them will have attempted suicide. Now I am not going to go down the route of blaming all young male suicide on the non-existence of a caring sphere which accepts a persons sexual orientation ; I certainly think it is a factor but not the only one. However when the State's institutions fail to recognize the differences within our youth; fail to organize adequate responses to issues; fail to respond to the needs of our youths and institutionally block efforts of equality, either through the deliberate ignorance of the issue eg. The Lydia Foy Case (3-4 days left for the implementation of that ruling if I'm not mistaken) or a blocking/delaying of an issue such as the issue of Civil Unions, then the State sets itself up for figures which the SHOUT survey in NI discovered, and I have no doubt that the LGBT Lives survey, will find something similar.

The State has a responsibility to provide role models for society to follow. Those role models now extend to the LGBT community. But with Institutional blocks in place, it is hard to have good role models in our communities, whom have existed up to this point invisibly, whose relationships are not valued or recognized by the State. I may remind people that there is no differentiation in the constitution of this great Republic between the taxes of straight people and those of gay people. There is already differentiation between Married people & single people. If people want to argue a case against Civil Unions, on the basis that it would cost too much, as the Irish Independent voxpop on their website did last week, Don't!.




*either verbal or Physical