Homophobia in UCD

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday February 18, 2004 01:30 by reeuq - ucdsu riotspace at yahoo dot ca

“What is the use of rainbow week” is the title of a tread on the UCD student union message board. Followed by a comment that says “I don't know if the scrawls on the posters were homophobic - sounds like it was people who think it's funny to slag gay people, not necessarily homophobes!” Reading this makes me think of this Le Tigre song Tres bien and the line “because they will try to convince us that we have arrived, that we are already there, that it has happened. Because we need to live in the place where we are truly alive, present, safe and accounted for.”

It’s true that the song is referring to people who say that there is equality between the sexes already and who do not see the institutional and personal forms of sexism and the patriotic society that we are living in. The sentiment can be used to explore the homophobia and heterosexism that are blatant at UCD.

People question the need for rainbow week, they question the need of an LGB society and they say that sexuality doesn’t matter and wonder why we are making a big deal of it. Well first of all the all the comments on the rainbow week posters, the sabot posters and so on show that ‘slagging’ gay people in other words homophobia is the main form of insults used on this campus. It is so commonplace that not only do we see it everywhere it is so normalised that people don’t see it as an issue. But these comments on the posters are just the beginning.

First of all, the rainbow week posters have been targeted and ripped down when others have not. They have been postered over when others were left. They have generated complaints that included that the posters with two boys kissing and slogans like “closets are for clothes” “love is a good thing” and “what are you afraid of” are offensive and flaunting our sexuality in their face. With typical comments like “I have no problem with gays just keep it in the bedroom”. Well I say I’m sorry if seeing us holding hands and kissing marginalizes you, your whole culture marginalizes us.

What presents it self as a deeper problem is the comments that some staff members are making. These are the people who are suppose to be role models, leaders, teachers and those who are suppose to support us on our journeys. For some of the staff these journeys consist of “spiritual guidance” that will help us with the “wrong” acts and behaviours that we partake in. For others talk of anything outside of heteronormativiety will bring acquisitions of sexual assault. As if homoSEXuality is only about sex and heterosexuality is so ingrained into institutions such as marriage that is has become asexual. And finally there are staff who say comments such as; “it is one thing to be deviant. Yet it is quite another to try to convince people that it is ok.”

This hate and ignorance that is generated from staff members is a very clear reason why rainbow week is needed, it is a clear reason why things like the positive space stickers need to be put up and it is a very clear image that “it” has not already happened.