Christine Thomas, author of the new book 'It doesn’t have to be like this - Women and the Struggle for Socialism' spoke to Sarah Wrack about why such a book was necessary.
“A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000.” An archaic, perhaps medieval hangover from the past? On the contrary – in fact, this is actually being proposed by Minister Dermot Ahern as a new crime of blasphemous libel that will form an amendment to the Defamation Bill.
The week of a college referendum on whether or not the Students' Union should support gay marriage has seen hundreds of NUI Galway students take a stand against anti-LGBTQ bigotry and fear-mongering. Last Wednesday, hundreds of students crowded around an anti-gay marriage stall set up on the main campus canteen, standing there for hours and showing the homophobic campaigners behind the display that they weren't welcome in the college.
Forty-four years ago at a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, a group of transsexuals, cross-dressers, drag queens, lesbians, and gay men fought back against their constant persecution by the New York Police Department and inadvertently started the modern fight for gay liberation. They would not believe the progress that queer people have made in the last 44 years!