Attivista Panti Bliss: “Mi sento meno al sicuro in trascinamento per le strade”

# Rory O’Neill, the drag queen and activist known as Panti Bliss, on what the Yes campaign got right

When I was a kid there was nothing gay in the world around me. There was no Graham Norton on television; no Andrew Scott talking about fellas. I was living in a small town in Co Mayo. There was absolutely nothing queer in the world at the time. Even after college there was no proper scene here in Dublin. Homosexuality was still illegal in this country. Eventually I went off to Japan. When I came back to Dublin in 1995, everything was very different.

Ireland managed to change so fast, which I think has a lot to do with just how small we are. One of the things that I enjoy getting to do in my weird little career is to travel around and meet queers in all these other places. Often in these places it’s still pretty miserable and they’ve got a long way to go. And they all really look to Ireland and how we managed to pull it off. I think in the end the softly softly approach, quiet, older people telling their stories on the radio or whatever, really did get it across the line. That’s what spoke to people. In the end it all worked out beautifully and I think a lot of other campaigns for human rights issues learnt a lot from the way the gays managed to pull it off.

Would we get a bigger majority if that referendum happened today? If you’d asked me five years ago I would have very confidently said we would smash it. The [No campaign] would have seen that none of the things they had been warned about happened, the sky didn’t fall down, babies weren’t plucked off supermarket shelves by the gays, all the nonsense they were coming up with. The world continued perfectly normally. But now, this rancid anti-gay, anti-queer, anti-trans conversation on the internet, which served us pretty well 10 to 15 years ago, is ruining everything.

I feel less safe now on the street than I did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. When I was a young drag queen running around I would think nothing of running from the George to somewhere else in drag. I’m not an idiot, the reaction to a drag queen on a street was that most people didn’t know what they were looking at. Whereas now I avoid that if I possibly can. There is now a concerted effort to make us, the queer community and particular trans people, figures of hate. You know, ten years ago, my social media was not full of people calling me a paedophile.


People cynical about Rory’s lived experience yet in the same breath will argue how Dublin has gone to the dogs is quite a stance…

What has changed in recent years is the dangerous culture wars nonsense that has been made politically mainstream.

In particular, the targeting of the trans community. Being bigoted has been made more acceptable. Concocted wedge issues to distract from societal inequality and its causes. If only people would target the correct 1%.

We have a much more diverse population which although has many benefits does not align with many parts of what is considered liberal acceptance.

Absolutely we have our own who contribute massively to the safety concern however you intentionally have your head in the sand if you don’t think immigration is not a factor here.

Hmm, not my experience but I’m not lgbt+.

I did go to a stag last year and we were all told to meet in Pantibar.
Few of us thought it was an unusual venue to kick off a straight stag night, especially given that the groom to be was (and is) “a man’s man” etc.
But none of us objected and there weren’t even any no shows. We actually ended up staying there longer than was planned.

I think anyone publicly threatening or ridiculing someone for how they look (drag, any other physical appearance or attributes) are the kind of people who think all refugees are rapists, listen to music on loudspeaker on public transport and reckon that the guvmint should pay for their 4 under 6 year old kids with 5 different mothers while thinking Nike Air Max are designer fashion.

Same with all the posts in the vein of “Lads, is Dublin more dangerous than it used to be?”. Probably.
But certain parts were always sketchy, even dangerous for someone like me who grew up there.
Me and 4 mates were literally ran out of Dolphins Barn one night walking home after missing the Nitelink.
I was sucker punched one night in Blanchardstown and then kicked around as I lay in the fetal position.
A friend of mine was battered outside the Garda Rowing club in Chapelizod, while a Garda event was going on inside.

One person’s experience doesn’t mean that the entire world is fucked.

Again, I’m not lgbt+ so I’ll never truly know what it’s like. But I have been the victim of violence, hate and ridicule.
It’s the world and the massive variety of people and arseholes who fill it.

Articles like this (and posted directly by the author/publication/outlet) will serve the purpose of driving clicks through heated and controversial discourse. And that can only amplify any hatred and negative feelings towards a group of society.

Replace lgbt+ with race, religion, ethnicity, politics or even brand of crisps (Tayto are inferior and I’ll die on that hill) will all generate the same rage clicks.

The only winner is the ad revenue of the paper.

Emmm

Probably doesn’t feel safe in around dublin due to what one may be properly trans/drag clothes.

Sad to say buy I mean people who dress in draw or wear full on dresses are not going to have a easy life. That’s just ask how it.

It’s not rocketscience . Maybe they don’t feel safe in the same way a lot of us wouldn’t feel safe robbing a banki:,e we we brought up with the belief it is not ok and that subsidy shuns dow I that kind of behaviour. Congratulations you have finely got to feel what it feels like for women who born here with all the current appedinges.

It dont mean this in a derogatory way but if want to be taken by a man when they look at you maybe put more of an afford into looking like. I really don’t understand the bit butch obviously formal makes now pretending to be women is extremely insulting to any thinking woman or man’s IQ level.l

Tends to happen when the government consigns violent criminality even when it’s motivated by hate against minorities

This is what happens when we import US Culture War bollox. If you’re genuinely offended by a drag queen, or an LGBT person to the point where you want to physically assault them- you’re a freak.