Something Important

Take a few minutes to watch this video, please. Panti is one of Ireland's best known drag queens (does Brendan O'Carrol count?), and here she is highlighting an important issues, the prevalence and everyday nature of homophobia. Why is it still acceptable to have debates about the suitability of non-heterosexuals to raise children, or enter into a marriage? We all need to question why, in Ireland and most countries, people who identify as gay are legally less entitled to do many of the things that straight people are?

I gave blood last week, and read, on the same page as warnings about HIV, malaria and CJD, that if you had ever had sex with a man who had EVER engaged in any kind of sexual activity with another man, you could not donate blood. What kind of a message does that send? 

This video is important because it serves as a wake up call. A little 'hey, remember us, we're still here, and the discrimination we face hasn't gone away'.  Awareness of the reality of common place homophobia and legislative discrimination is the first step to making our society a better place for everyone.