Top Tweets for #ItsOKToBeGay

LGB people are being told that the Draft Conversion Practices Bill speaks for us. It does not. We oppose coercion and cruelty. We also oppose a bill that could make it harder for children who may grow up lesbian, gay or bisexual to be heard and supported. Watch. Read the stories. Add your name: https://t.co/jjEn6Kzi0W #ItsOkayToBeGay

“It makes looking after gay children a crime...this bill causes — and not prevents — gay conversion therapy”, says Dennis Kavanagh. The Bill is both confusing and confused. It is framed as protecting vulnerable people from coercive attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. In reality, it risks criminalising well-intentioned conversations and imprisoning parents, teachers, therapists, religious communities and even friends. Speaking at the Free Speech Union and Genspect’s event in Belfast on Friday, criminal barrister and co-director of the Gay Men’s Network Dennis Kavanagh highlighted that the law already rightly bans abusive conversion practices. This Bill would create new offences that could criminalise important conversations between parents and their gender-confused children. It will inevitably and inadvertently harm the very children it purports to protect by casting “the shadow of criminal law across your kitchen table”. Watch Dennis and the full event below 👇

The idea behind International Gay Men’s Day is nice, and I genuinely like a lot of the people and orgs behind it. But I just don’t see the need for it. I don’t need a day to celebrate the fact I fancy men. If anything, I think younger gays would be far better off if we removed all this identity stuff from being gay and treated it as normally as being left handed. Even when I was younger and fully aboard the woke train, I never liked Pride. I thought it was ridiculous then and I still think a lot of these endless days of visibility and celebration are meaningless. At some point you’re not normalising us anymore. You’re just constantly reminding everyone that we’re a separate category of person. One of the biggest issues I had being VP of an LGB org was the idea that I somehow represented gays. It’s largely why I stepped down. A massive part of NAG for me was pushing back against that identity shite. I didn’t want to replace “all good gays must believe X” with a new version where all good gays must believe Y. We don’t all think the same. We don’t behave the same. We don’t vote the same. We certainly don’t all have the same sense of humour, as I learned several times 😂 So yeah, I like the people behind it and I understand why they’re doing it. I just think it’s counterproductive, othering and ultimately a bit regressive. Anyway, I’m Seán. I’m Irish. I like writing. I like music. I spend too much time arguing about politics on the internet. I also happen to fancy men. It really doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. #InternationalGayMensDay