A behind-the-scenes row in the gay community over this week's gay film festival in Dublin is drawing attention to gay politics. Hugh Linehan reports on those for and against Michael McDowell opening the event.
'Look out!" is the catchy new name of Dublin's 13th Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, which takes place next weekend at the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar. But Minister for Justice Michael McDowell should perhaps take that title more literally than the organisers intended when he officially opens the event on Thursday evening.
The online bulletin boards and discussion forums of gay community groups have been buzzing with debate and argument over whether McDowell is an appropriate choice to launch this year's festival. There has been talk of egg and tomato throwing, organised protests and boycotts, while one member of the festival committee has resigned in protest at the invitation.
After the annual Gay Pride festival, the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival is the biggest social and cultural event in the calendar for gay men and women in Ireland. About 5,000 people will attend movies, themed this year around the subject of "family values". There's the French family farce Cockles and Muscles, the drama Queer Parents and the homoerotic The Clan, along with the documentary Andrew & Jeremy Get Married.
The controversy over whether McDowell's role points up divisions within a section of society which is usually described (often by itself) as a "community", but which is just as socially, politically and demographically diverse as the rest of Irish society.
The protesters are largely drawn from those who see the struggle for lesbian and gay rights as part of a broader political agenda which includes other minorities such as Travellers, the disabled and refugees (all of whom are represented within the lesbian and gay communities as well, of course).
Those who support the invitation argue that McDowell, as the government minister who will make the crucial decisions on issues such as legal partnerships and family rights for same-sex couples, is a completely appropriate choice.
"We were delighted and surprised he accepted," says festival director Brian Sheehan. "It's very significant that a lesbian and gay event can attract a senior minister's attention."
Marie Mulholland, chair of the Irish Council for Civil Liberty's Partnership Rights and Family Diversity Initiative, disagrees strongly. "I informed the board members of this, one of whom was very upset and has since resigned."
In an open letter to the festival board, Mulholland argued: "To provide a platform at a lesbian and gay community event to an individual who has done more in a short time to ensure through his legislation, policies and statements that equality remains a privilege and not a right, is an extremely difficult and disturbing development."
By the end of last week, according to Sheehan, the festival had received almost 50 letters and e-mails of protest. It responded with its own open letter, arguing: "While there has been significant progress in equality legislation in the last decade in Ireland, implementation of equality remains a significant issue, and not just for LGBT [ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] people. Recognition and protection of our family relationships remain as key areas of inequality for us, particularly in relation to the lack of civil marriage or partnership provisions for same sex couples and the lack of recognition of same sex partnerships in immigration and residency regulations.
"There has been increasing public discussion on these subjects over the last year, and there is a growing consensus that change is required. The challenge for LGBT people is to ensure that policy and legislative changes in these areas are implemented on the basis of full equality.
"In this context, to open the festival, the DLGFF invited the Minister charged by the Government with the responsibility for Law Reform in the key areas of partnership and immigration. This Minister has huge responsibilities to our community. The Minister will be presenting on behalf of the Government the Bill to establish our civil rights to partnership and as such should meet a wide membership of our community, at a time when we can at least remind him of the urgency of our concerns."
Marie Mulholland rejects the notion that the McDowell's appearance will represent some form of engagement with lesbians and gays.
"This is not engagement. I've put several options to the festival, that there should be some kind of Q&A or that somebody should be given equal time to him on the platform. None of these has been accepted. What we've got here is the hijacking of an event which up to now has been a celebration."
Kieran Rose, chair and co-founder of the Gay & Lesbian Equality Network, accuses the protesters of practising "more radical than thou" politics.
"I don't see disability or refugee groups calling for a boycott," he says. "It's an immature kind of politics, as if nobody else has opinions on immigration. You must engage with the democratically elected government. The only way not to be criticised is to do nothing. We think it's entirely appropriate to invite the Minister to a festival around the theme of 'family values'.
"The festival has a right to invite him and there's no connection between sexual orientation and politics. Your social class has more to do with it."
On the face of it, there is no particular reason why gays should be on the left. In other countries, particularly in the US, many have seen their interests as being more closely aligned with the libertarian right and with neo-liberalism, agrees Sheehan.
"Lesbians and gays don't fit into any particular political group," he says. "Maybe activism has tended to be of the left, but there are also many people who identify socially but not politically with the community. But a lesbian and gay film festival will always be a political event when a gay couple can't walk down a Dublin street hand in hand."
Beneath the surface of the debate there are tensions surrounding the accountability of organisations such as the Gay & Lesbian Equality Network and the festival.
"Brian needs to take responsibility," says Mulholland. "There was no consultation with representative groups or with his own board. I think what's happened is indicative of a deeper malaise within the community's organisations, which are run by the same people all the time. They don't actually consult."
Rose retorts: "The other words for 'same old faces' are 'long-term commitment'. The whole question of representing the entire community is difficult. We see ourselves as accountable and transparent, with clear reporting structures."
This controversy takes place against a backdrop of expectation of changes in the law as it pertains to same-sex partnerships. Rose believes that the Oireachtas committee on the Constitution is likely to come out in favour of civil partnerships.
"Although, as an equality organisation, our position was that there should be a right to marriage, with the same duties and responsibilities," he says.
Last year, McDowell spoke in the debate in the Seanad on Senator David Norris's Civil Partnership Bill, which has been postponed pending the committee's deliberations. While drawing attention to what he said were "major constitutional, philosophical and discriminatory issues", he acknowledged on behalf of the Government "that the position before the law of same-sex couples and others in caring relationships, including extending State recognition to civil partnerships between such persons, needs to be addressed. We cannot walk away from, ignore or postpone this issue."
Rose believes the speech was a "positive enough analysis of the need for change". He also accepts that the gay community was extremely unhappy with changes introduced by the Government last year, which excluded same-sex couples from recognition for social welfare purposes, and with Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Coughlan's comment that Ireland was not ready and "may never be ready" for gay couples with children in a family unit.
"This is not our ideal government, but we'd be waiting around a long time for that," he says.
Mulholland doesn't believe that there'll be any fruit or vegetables thrown in the Irish Film Institute this Thursday and is wary of the protest being hijacked by groups such as the Socialist Workers Party, but she points to a late fundraising drive by the festival as proof that "people have spoken with their money" and will be staying away. There is also talk of a petition and of leaflets being circulated.
Michael Cronin, a former board member of the festival, is also opposed to the invitation, but reflective about what it means.
"To me, the festival has always been about openness and equality," he says. "Michael McDowell seems to me to be opposed to that. There's no doubt he's a divisive and controversial figure. The people who are involved in lobbying groups appear to think they always know best. But the reason I can be publicly critical of them is because they have helped create the conditions in which I, as a gay man of my generation, can do that. This may turn out to be a good thing, if it gets people like me thinking about these issues of accountability."