TCD LGBT Society

LegacyUser

Hi, starting in Trinity next month and wondering if anyone with experience would recommend this society or not.

Thanks.

Boston

Everyones opinion on this will be biased in one way or another. I went to trinity (still do actually) and I was on the committee for a while back in the day. Its a good way to meet gay/bi people from especially if you don't know any yourself. prior to college. I didn't take to it at all for a variety of reasons ( manly because I didn't relate to the people there outside of this one part of me ) maybe if you have some more specific questions I can answer in more detail.

Talliesin

College societies are dirt-cheap to join, might as well.

anotherlostie

Are you comfortable with your sexuality now? Are you out to any people? If not, then maybe this isn't the best idea.

I was deeply in the closet in college. Now maybe joining the LGBT society would have encouraged me to come out, and made me feel better about myself by being around like minded gayers!

Or maybe it would have lead to me being paranoid about being seen to be involved with the society by someone who knew me, or to being pigeonholed as the gay guy in my class (mid-90's here, so hope things have changed, but you read an awful lot of homophobia on some forums here still from people in their teens/ twenties, so I don't know for sure).

To be honest, I always had an impression that the then LGBT society would not allow you in unless you swore allegiance to socialism and got involved in every protest going. But that was just me.

Boston

Thats the thing though, once you get past the whole "hey I'm gay" "hey so am I" phrase, there will be very few like minded people given the nature of the society and those that are like minded will tend to clique together. Thats a general critism of any society though.

Wrt to socialism and wearing you sexuality like a badge on honor, it wasn't that way when I joined but it wasn't a distant memory of how things where either.

Sapien

shudIjoin? wrote:

Hi, starting in Trinity next month and wondering if anyone with experience would recommend this society or not.

Thanks.

Hullo there,

I'm a committee member of the LGBT Soc - joined around the same time as Boston, and persisting doggedly to this day. As such, as you might guess, I'm quite enthusiastic about it.

It's the oldest student gay society in the country. In fact, this year we're celebrating 25 years since our official recognition by the college - though the society existed in some form or other since the seventies when David Norris and some of his friends set it up. That probably won't make a huge difference to you though.
The Society has about 200 members every year, of whom about one 50 become what we call "active membership", in other words, members who would regularly come to events and visit the Soc room. We hold events every week of term - drinks receptions, movie nights, debates, ice skating, drinks receptions, pub crawls. We generally end up in the George or the Dragon afterwards.

We have a Society Room in House 6 on Front Square - that's just next to Front Arch and over the SU shop. It's not huge, but it's a precious commodity on campus. There's free tea and coffee on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from one til three (officially - though often til late evening in reality), with at least one committee member, and inevitably a bunch of our members. This is a great way to get involved in the Soc - you can just come along and drink tea, get into a conversation if you're interested, get an idea what kind of people are active in the Society.

Like any Society, the LGBT Soc is, when it comes down to it, just a group of people. We can't guarantee that this particular group of people will appeal to you, but if you give it a chance, I'm sure you'll meet at least some people who do. It's not one of those groups where people sit around and discuss their problems with being gay (though, of course, we have people who are experienced at dealing with coming out issues). Quite the opposite in fact - you will seldom find a group of people who are more comfortable with their sexuality. This is reflected in the fact that the Society is very conspicuous on campus - you will see us within seconds during Freshers' Week. This doesn't mean that you will have to be conspicuous as a member - but the College and its students are very, very used to the idea of the LGBT Society, and very comfortable with it, even proud of it.

Society life is a great way to get the most out of college. There are many societies in Trinity, and you'll probably find a number that interest you. You should definitely join the LGBT Society anyway (if only out of solidarity - many straight students even do. It's only 2 euro), and you may find yourself spending a lot of time in the Soc room. It happens.

My own experience of the Soc is as follows. I've been in the college for about nine years. During my undergrad, I had almost nothing to do withe the Soc. I didn't feel any need to. I had a boyfriend, a crazy social life, and had no problems with being gay. When I moved on to post grad in my department, many of my friends moved on to the real world, and I needed some people to spend time with on campus during the day. At the time I happened to be asked to liaise with the LGBT Soc by another organisation on whose committee I sat. I probably would have joined anyway. So, I was introduced to the Society, and found myself spending more and more time with them. I haven't had a free lunch hour since, and have become one of the main organisers. Over four years I have attended conferences, met Senators, been in newspapers, spoken at debates, organised formal balls and shows with hundreds of students attending, and drunk more cheap wine than I care to remember, all through the Society. I'm presently helping to organise a year of celebrations for our Silver Anniversary.

Sapien

anotherlostie wrote:

To be honest, I always had an impression that the then LGBT society would not allow you in unless you swore allegiance to socialism and got involved in every protest going. But that was just me.

TCD LGBT? I'm not sure what it was like when you were in college, but that's certainly not the case now. Of course we make an effort to help out with any LGBT rights related projects undertaken by groups like USI, GLEN, the political party LGBT groups, and so forth. We sent a delegation to Pride this year. Within college, any rights issues are dealt with by the LGBT Rights Officer, who's elected through the SU, but he or she always works closely with the Society.

In general though, the Society focuses strongly on the social aspect of being gay in college. Many of our members are just concerned about getting through college and having fun, and, as such, the Society aims primarily to meet those needs.

Boston wrote:

once you get past the whole "hey I'm gay" "hey so am I" phrase, there will be very few like minded people given the nature of the society and those that are like minded will tend to clique together. Thats a general critism of any society though.

The last sentence being important. People are often too incredulous of the idea that they could be comfortable being involved with an LGBT society, thinking that being gay isn't enough reason to be friends with people. Of course it isn't. Neither, though, is an interest in debating, archery, languages or trampolining, though all of these societies, and all others, have a firm social network around them. It makes at least as much sense to become socially involved in an LGBT soc, and at least as likely that one will find people one likes in them.

What is more, gay people often do find that they have a lot in common with other gay people. For one thing, one can comfortably talk about being gay. Not in a "hi, I'm gay" kind of way, but in a "the rugby team had their tops off today" kind of way. Straight people talk about sex and romance all the time - it is a prevalent topic of conversation, a means of bonding and of sharing experiences and problems. Gay people surrounded by straight people tend not to have this as much, and experience of this where it previously lacked can be revelatory and intoxicating.

Nobody proposes that gay students commit all of their social lives to the LGBT Soc - that would be ridiculous, and a little creepy. Everybody in the Soc has a life outside of it, to varying degrees - some pop by every now and then; some can be found in the Soc room most days; some come to every event. This is just the same in every society in college.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Just to answer I'm only out to a few people as yet but I think most people know. I'll definitely consider joining this though.

Talliesin

anotherlostie wrote:

To be honest, I always had an impression that the then LGBT society would not allow you in unless you swore allegiance to socialism and got involved in every protest going. But that was just me.

Yep, that was just you.

Certainly didn't have to be a socialist in the mid-90s to be in the LGB (I wasn't in Trinity, but as I ran the UCD LGB I kept in touch) or even gay.

Boston

In fairness trinity LGBT had a fairly bad rep for leftist extreme feminism, and notions of what was require to actually be a true blue gay.

Annasopra

Boston wrote:

In fairness trinity LGBT had a fairly bad rep for leftist extreme feminism, and notions of what was require to actually be a true blue gay.

That was only a phase though and a lot of those people have long since left -

dan719

Why not join? It only cost two euro and you'll have people to go out on the scene with, my straight friends only want to come every so often!:D

LegacyUser

I'm about to start in TCD myself and was thinking about it too
(but I've dug myself a nice psychological hole where I'm not sure I'm even a lesbian, don't believe any of my friends would be very supportive so I haven't told them how I've been feeling, haven't tried anything with anyone and am too scared to do anything about it)
but, on the offchance that I do join sometime, do there tend to be many girls? All but one committee member is a guy. And Sapien, your post was a lot more informative than most of the stuff on the official website so thanks.

shoegirl

anotherlostie wrote:

Are you comfortable with your sexuality now? Are you out to any people? If not, then maybe this isn't the best idea.

I was deeply in the closet in college. Now maybe joining the LGBT society would have encouraged me to come out, and made me feel better about myself by being around like minded gayers!

Or maybe it would have lead to me being paranoid about being seen to be involved with the society by someone who knew me, or to being pigeonholed as the gay guy in my class (mid-90's here, so hope things have changed, but you read an awful lot of homophobia on some forums here still from people in their teens/ twenties, so I don't know for sure).

To be honest, I always had an impression that the then LGBT society would not allow you in unless you swore allegiance to socialism and got involved in every protest going. But that was just me.

I think to be honest (and i predate you in TCD by just a few years) that they were less friendly and sympathetic than they are likely to be now.

The only thing I would say is that these societies change a lot from year to year depending on who joins up and turns up so they tend to vary. Generally they are a good way to meet gay people the same age as you with whom you have something in common, which to be honest gets much more difficult later on in life.

shoegirl

Johnnymcg wrote:

That was only a phase though and a lot of those people have long since left -

The reason for that was that at the time it was still quite radical to be out and a lot of those who were belonged to fairly priveliged groups whose lives weren't impacted by it. As for the more radical elements, I think I know who you mean - they were acquaintances (and still are) and while we did have our political differences there was diversity - however homogenous it may have seemed politically. I do recall one particularly notorious spat between one guy and myself over support or opposition to a union election for a guy whose now financial editor of well known Dublin broadsheet for a start ...... it was as tough to be politically different as it was to be sexually different, I guess!

LegacyUser

Hey there

I was a member of TCD LGBT (joined back in the good old days before they even had the T I think, and well befor the Q debate) and would recommend it. There is no pressure to be political or take part in protests, for me it was a safe space to be nyself and meet like-minded ppl. It's not a pick up group either which is good. Brilliant events every week, the option of being as involved as you want, or just dropping in for 5 minutes during lunch. I made 1 or 2 very good friends there who have stayed with me as life moves on

LegacyUser

are there many bisexual people in the soc?