I’ll just let Emma Donoghue say what needs to be said, as she was so eloquent on the CBC earlier this month:
In Ireland, it’s a constant fight for basic civil rights. Chris wouldn’t be recognized as the parent of my children and every day would be a struggle. Here in Canada, though, I can go months at a time without thinking, “hey, I’m a lesbian.” Once you get the civil rights out of the way, you can just worry about your mortgage like everybody else.
Damn straight.
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Hurrah for Canada. Let the world continue to presume that its stereotype of habitual niceness is in some ways true.
Meanwhile American Spiritual Conservatives are wishing fervently to invisible sky genies for the fall of Canadian society so that their bullshit about “Straight Marriage is the cornerstone of Society” can somehow be validated.
I say we cover Canada and Mexico with newspaper, then prime and repaint the USA.
Man, didn’t know Ireland was like that. Does anybody know how the rest of the UK is? I got the impression that England was pretty gay-friendly. I hope I’m not wrong about that.
I suspect Ireland refers to the Republic of Ireland – which is a seperate country from the UK, rather than Northern Ireland which is one of the constituent parts of the UK. I’m given to understand that both are far more conservative than the England/Scotland/Wales part of the UK.
The UK is not exactly a gay friendly utopia. Even in fairly large cities like Manchester and London you’d probably find yourself in trouble openly demonstrating gay affection outside the gay areas of the cities – and the rural areas can be actively hostilie to people that just seem a bit gay-ey. I think attitudes are changing – and I think it’s certainly more gay friendly than many places in the world – but I would still advise gay visitors to my country to be a bit canny. Unless they’re in Brighton of course. Anything goes in Brighton.
Can I just add a quick “no pun intended” to the end of your post?
We had a pride parade in Jerusalem last week; I didn’t realize it was part of a larger international thing. Cool.
You could, but the pun was absolutely intended. 😉
As an Irish lesbian who was at Dublin’s Pride Parade last Saturday… it’s not as bad as Emma Donoghue might lead you to think. Legally, the situation in Ireland is not as good as it is in Canada — we don’t have gay marriage, for one thing — but we do have anti-discrimination laws and increasingly liberal public attitudes. We’re not there, but we’re heading in the right direction.
To SmR:
From what I’ve heard about the last few Pride parades in Jerusalem, I’m going to have to salute your bravery.
To itbox: Was it? I guess MGK is more subtle than I gave him credit for 🙂
To Sivi: Oh, I personally wasn’t in the parade, I just meant that Israel had one. And the media noted that this one was actually noticeably less violent than previous years (like the one where an ultra-Orthodox guy got loose in the crowd and stabbed three people. This time they just held a counter-protest-thing.).
I had a great time at Pride while living in Toronto a couple of years ago, and will always remember that the biggest cheers from the crowd along the parade route were reserved for the ‘JUST MARRIED’ signs.
The pride parade here went right past the library where I work, I was able to watch from my desk.
One patron was apparently wandering around muttering about how much he hated “those people.” Needless to say he got a lot of sympathy from the staff.
No wait, that’s not right. What’s the exact opposite of sympathy?
“Here in Canada, though, I can go months at a time without thinking about lesbians.”
Far longer than I’ve ever managed.