Madam, - The Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival - Look Out! - is a key event in the LGBT community's calendar. It is an opportunity to use film to put forward ideals that our community continues to strive for - ideals such as equality, diversity, a fair and just society, and of course the family values which serve as the theme for this, the 13th festival. The representation of LGBT people in film and cinema is a powerful medium for challenging traditional stereotypes and discrimination.
It is precisely because of the importance of this event that Labour LGBT, along with many other sections of the community, is dismayed at the decision to invite Michael McDowell to open the festival. The festival committee would have us believe that it is important for us to engage with the Minister responsible for equality, but this is a fallacious argument. As pointed out by Marie Mulholland (chair of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties Partnership Rights and Family Diversity Initiative), there will be no engagement, no Q&A session, just a Minister who has done nothing for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
We know we don't speak for all of the LGBT community, but there is surely a current of progressive thought that realises that the Minister and this Government have been pursuing an anti-equality agenda at variance with any concept of a fair society.
The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) have come out in recent days as one of the festival's most vocal supporters on this issue, claiming that "there's no connection between sexual orientation and politics".
This is a preposterous statement. By the very decision to invite Mr McDowell, the festival committee has already accepted there is an undeniable link between sexual orientation and politics.
Until this time, Labour LGBT have refrained from entering the debate, instead encouraging our members to voice their concerns individually to the festival committee. However, in light of the sheer volume of contacts we have had from new and existing members, and recognising the committee's refusal to recognise the concerns of the LGBT community, we feel we must publicly register our disquiet. We appreciate the Trojan work that the Look Out! festival committee put in every year and it is a credit that its members that Look Out! is held in such high esteem. We remain convinced, however, that our criticism is valid.
This Government has overseen the introduction of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 and the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, both of which explicitly limit their definitions of cohabitation to heterosexual couples. The Minister for Justice is also challenging the Gilligan/Zappone case. Our concerns are shared by members of the disability sector and those involved with Traveller organisations, particular minority groups who have suffered at the hands of Mr McDowell and his Government with the recent flawed Disability Act 2004 and Equality Act 2004.
Irrespective of the realpolitik of the situation, and the likely reannouncement that the PDs support same-sex partnerships in some form, we are faced with a dilemma: do we collude with LGBT discrimination as practised and implemented by this Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and his Government, or do we challenge it? We choose to challenge it.
For Mr McDowell, it has been a case of lights, camera, inaction on LGBT equality. - Yours, etc,
RACHEL MATHEWS McKAY,
RICHIE KEANE,
Co-Chairpersons,
Labour LGBT,
Labour Party,
Ely Place,
Dublin 2.