What was it like being LGBT pre-1993?

Dr. Baltar

I'm 20 years of age and I've been out for just about a year now. Every time that I've told someone that I'm bi they have accepted it and been pretty nice about it too. I've never had a bad experience.

I consider myself priviledged to be able to live in a society that is (semi)tolerant of my sexuality and I realise that any animosity that occurs on me is mostly due to religious/ignorant hatred.

However, I myself am ignorant. I can read the wiki article on the Stonewall rights and watch films like 'Milk' all I want but I'll never understand the day to day feelings of living in a country where who you are attracted to and love is a crime.

I would ask please, if anyone could please describe to me what it was like living in a pre-1993 Ireland as an LGBT person, if they could tell me please how things have changed for them, tell me what I and most other teen - 20 year olds take for granted and what they too would like to see in the future.

My apologies for making you show your age ( :P ) but I feel as proud to be bisexual as I feel being Irish and although I know from talking to people about how it felt to be Irish, I have never talked to an LGBT person who lived during criminalisation.

Much Regards!

The_Minister

The Dail records of the time are interesting. http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/plweb-cgi/fastweb?state_id=1278336188&amp;view=oho-view&amp;docrank=57&amp;numhitsfound=163&amp;query=homosexuality&amp;query_rule=(($query1)<=DATE<=($query2)) AND (($query4)):SPEAKER AND (($query5)):heading AND (($query6)):CATEGORY AND (($query3)):house AND (($query7)):volume AND (($query8)):colnumber AND (($query))&amp;query1=1993&amp;docid=292152&amp;docdb=Debates&amp;dbname=Debates&amp;starthit=50&amp;sorting=none&amp;operator=and&amp;TemplateName=predoc.tmpl&amp;setCookie=1

McDowell wrote:

During my 19 years as a practising barrister I have never come across an occasion on which someone was prosecuted for gross indecency and I have seen cases of buggery charged in the courts on infrequent occasions only. The stigma of criminality prevented many people from playing an active role in this community, prevented people from being appointed to the bench, prevented people from pursuing a life in politics and prevented people from playing a role in both professional organisations and their communities. That stigma of criminality existed as a potential blackmailer's charter on those individuals. It was deeply hypocritical of the Irish State to effectively suspend the prosecution of homosexual offences while at the same time leave the crime on our Statute Book. It was deeply hypocritical of this State to leave on our Statute Book laws which we had neither the will nor intention to apply, as they stigmatised a section of our community whom we no longer believed deserved such a stigma.

It seems that the offenses were not prosecuted for a long period before the law was decriminalised.
The issues involved in decriminalisation are discussed at length in the records.

EDIT: Can't seem to link - citation is Dáil Éireann - Volume 432 - 23 June, 1993 Private Members' Business. - Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, 1993: Second Stage

gcgirl

Open FM did a documentary about the last 30 yrs in LGBT history you should check their site for it !

Chuchoter

@gcgirl: Can you find a link for that documentary, I can't see it anywhere on the site and it sounds really interesting.

Dr. Baltar

crayolastereo wrote: »

@gcgirl: Can you find a link for that documentary, I can't see it anywhere on the site and it sounds really interesting.

Same as, I can see it listed on the schedule on OPENFM but I can't get the actual documentary.