Sir, - Regarding David Norris's letter (May 29th), I would like to clarify some factual inaccuracies, which may interest your readers.
Contrary to what was stated, two opinion polls were against legalising homosexual acts when the new law passed the Dail in June 1993. An IMS poll published in May 1993 showed 54 per cent of those who expressed an opinion opposed to legalisation and a more specific Lansdowne/Sunday Press poll published on June 20th showed an average 60 per cent opposition, with a majority opposed across all classes except AB, and all regions except Dublin. Fr Micheal McGreil's study to which reference was made, was not a national study, as it dealt only with the greater Dublin area and was unrepresentative of the country as a whole.
The letter contends that homosexuals comprise a "surprisingly large segment" of the Irish population. No Irish survey has ever been made. The Battelle Human Affairs Institute in the US conducted a massive government financed survey in 1993 and found 1.1 per cent of males to be practising homosexuals. This corroborated several other surveys in Canada and Europe and was editorially endorsed by The Irish Times (April 21st and 23rd, 1993).
The contentious Article 6A of the Amsterdam Treaty, dealing with discrimination, including the ground of sexual orientation, was, according to a prominent homosexual campaigner (Gay Community News July 1997) proposed by the Irish Government in response to homosexual lobbying, undoubtedly behind closed doors. Perhaps, it is not homosexuals who are "used by others as ping pong balls", but the Irish public.
There is an undeniable link between homosexual practices and sexually transmitted diseases. The Department of Health in England, differentiates between STDs homosexually and heterosexually acquired. In its latest 1996 Report: "New Cases seen at Genito-Urinary Medicine Clinics in England", homosexually acquired syphilis was 18 per cent of all males cases, gonorrhoea 30 per cent, hepatitis B 26 per cent and AIDS 60 per cent. Accepting the Battelle finding of homosexuals as 1.1 per cent of the male population, their disproportionate share of STDs is quite alarming.
Report No 53 of the European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS, covering all Europe, indicated that, in 1996, 44.2 per cent of all male cases to date were homosexually acquired. In many countries, homosexually was the dominant factor, in other drugs abuse predominated.
One must face unpalatable facts. Denying reality does not help honest debate nor the search for solutions. Personalised attacks on perceived opponents are equally counterproductive. One irrefutable fact is that Ms Geoghegan Quinn's legalisation was passed at a time when popular opinion was opposed. There was no effective democratic representation of the people's majority view in the Oireachtas and few, if any, of the major concerns were addressed. - Yours, etc., John O'Reilly, Secretary, The Responsible Society (Irish Branch),
Dalkey, Co Dublin.