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I have started to research lately how so-called "community" organisations in the LGBT community in Ireland are funded, given my latest high horse about the non-representation of these groups which have become minority neighbourhood quangos.  One of the sad realities is that as these groups are no longer funded by their respective representative communities, but by central government and agencies, they are in danger of transformations into non-representative "elites" who no longer service the communities they were intended to assist, but have set themselves up as community hegemonies, manipulating and ultimating, hurting the very minority communities they were intended to assist.

For a long time now I have pointed this out about LINC in Cork (see www.linc.ie), which I think is particularly vulnerable due to the small community, degree of tolerance for backbiting on that scene and relatively homogeneousness in the users of the centre.  I've never really been 100% clear on the groups origins and original intentions as it happened a couple of years before I arrived, but over the years it has increasingly appeared to cater for an ever narrowing core of women.  When I moved here first it appeared to attract a multi-age, multi-background of mixed student, working and non-waged gay women (and bi ones too), but my experience of it over the last couple of years is that it has narrowed into a group for a mansubsection of the community rather than a diverse community that is growing and evolving.  This appears to be supported and perpetuated through a perpetual campaign of social filtering which encourages conformity to the group norms and shuns those who refuse to confirm.

As a result, it no longer serves the community it was intended to exist.  Similar problems appear to exist with groups such as Outhouse, GMP etc.  Once vibrant in a very marginalized community, instead of becoming stronger groups in a far less marginalized community, they have shrivelled and become in some cases smaller than they were when the community was a fraction of the size and relatively invisible.

Why has this happened?

Firstly, the inherent tacit monitoring structure of such groups are no longer taken from the wider community.  If such groups were to be entirely funded from their respective communities, feedback in terms of lower footfalls, reduction in donations and inevitable disagreements would result in the organization being forced to change to meet the changing needs or changing community.  In the case of funding coming from an external and essentially uninvolved force, there is no such feedback.  In fact, the only feedback the group will ever get it from its existing user base, who will inevitably only be those who are happy with services, thus generating a positive feedback loop.  So in terms of "postiive feedback" the group can do nothing but think its doing a great job, regardless of what is really happening externally.  And essentially it may be doing a "good job" but only catering for a very tiny minority - essentially a minority within a minority which is what appears to have happened not only failed to grow to respond of very changing needs, but set backwards into an increasingly 1980s style of poltical and social activism which I don't think will serve the community well.  Invaiably in the long term positive feedback eventually collapse in on themselves, this is likely to happen when the numbers using the services continue to drop off or (as is widely happening in the Catholic church) simply age to such a point that it is incredibly difficult to continue with the same services.

Removing the responsibility for funding from the served community has also removed the impact of feedback, thus not only allowing these groups to develop free from the control, but to become essentially trapped into centralised and potentially tyrannical steering groups, effectively nominated (since the people turning up are now too small to genuinely "elect" truly representative drivers) rather than elected and endangering these groups as they start to become marginalised within the community.  Inevitably this increases the cycle of self-marginalization, leading to a point where the groups have to start asking themselves what their purpose is.  But without community feedback in the form of essential support, this question cannot be asked.  I was horrified to read a well-intentioned website describe one of these as the "number one.....centre in Europe."  Compared to what?  The writer was clearly just going on their own feelings and probably had nothing to compare the group with.

To some extent, what is happening is not only navel gazing, but the absence of a coherent community strategy when establishing groups and seeking funding.  They appear to have become socially conservative and lack innovation.  They are also vulnerable to takeover attempts by agenda-driven and often self-seeking individuals looking for support from other marginalized people, but also left effectively to fend for themselves in a community that has more or less moved on without them.

Some have coped better with this threat than others.  One group has "barred" a self-appointed "consultant" to the TG community in Dublin, something I would strongly applaud them for, given this individuals self-interested and shameless exploitation of the Dublin social scene and desire for self-promotion that is doing far more harm than good to the TG community nationally.  Others are limping and struggling along, ostensibly believing themselves to be a success, but increasingly hemmed in by a tide of disinterest and apathy in their own communities, and ultimately, certain targets for loss of financial support under the next round of government cutbacks.

To be really honest, ironic though it may seem, the removal of public funding for some of these groups could be the best thing that ever happened to them.  Activism in Ireland has become stale, conservative, and weak.  The lack of strategy in the fight for couples rights to be recognised by the law is hugely symptomatic - the campaign lacks strategy, has little cohesion and no real direction.  There is a huge and growing gap between the gay-haves and the gay-have-nots, and in particular between the visibile "out" community and a hidden invisible group.  "Middle Ireland" gays are probably more realistically represented in mainstream political parties and community groups than they are in their own communities.  There is a serious need for reactivation of the radical ideals of the 1970s and 1980s than the tired and socially conservative form of commericialised gayness that is being imposed almost entirely through a vacuous commercial scene which is itself on the verge of financial collapse.  Rejuvination of the community sector would be a great start, but will only happen when the crisis hits, which I suspect will not be far away.

Shock-jocks such as Cork 96fm's resident video nasty, Neil Prendeville are sooner or later going to turn on "lesbian groups" in the same manner that the British tabloids turned on very legimate attempts by London boroughs to delegitimize homophobia in the 1980s, what is the danger here is that if right-wing media starts to uncover the levels of tax payer funding that goes directly into groups such as Outhouse, GMP, Linc and other groups, it may very well mark the beginning of a campaign to introduce bylaws to prevent public funding (which is effectively what Section 28 did in a very forcible fashion).  The Daily Mail, and the red tops are highly likely to target us as the revelations of tax misspends by more "legitimate" organizations dry up and believe me, we will get hammered.

Its in this context that I am slightly unnerved by the innocence of both LGBT Noise in planning a protest regarding the up and coming civil partnership legislation, while the legislation itself is expected around Easter.  What better launch pad for the far right wing Libertas, now that its almost got EC funding, than to take a swipe at the queers?  We need to gird our loins guys, things are gonna get very tough for us.  The time of honey and sweetness is long gone and its time to be able to hit back and make a real impact.  We need tough strategies for a new era, not simplistic and endearing appeals to a public assumed to be on our side.  It ain't the case in closeted Cork, and it won't be the case nationally in a few months time.

The other day I received a really interesting email about a protest by Noise against the fact that Ireland's proposed law for civil partnerships falls short of giving concrete rights to gay parents.  Noise and many other LGBT groups are deeply annoyed that the legislation is likely to create a sort of second-class partnership type that will not stand up in a court or even in civil society where issues regarding parenting are concerned.

Meanwhile, wealthy public menace Declan Ganley, now known to be huge money bags behind the anti-Lisbon campaign and now having transformed this campaign into what I suspect will become a deeply regressive, politically retrograde and menacing political party, has thrown his cards on the table on the issue in a recent issue of Hot Press.  In the context that Libertas is now a party, strongly backed by the Christian conservative right, that the original call for suggestions for partnerships in Ireland received 4000 responses, the vast majority of which were resounding negative regarding any kind of proposal on the issue, and that the current government is now in a case of severe crisis due to very severe mismanagement of the economy, not suggestion that even the original civil partnership proposal is deeply under threat?

Worse still, my big fear is that any kind of LGBT opposition to the current bill would no doubt lend massive credence to a right-wing claim of outright public opposition to gay civil partnership per se, and would totally undermine the "yes but not enough" position currently taken by Noise.

In this case, I am guessing that the current proposals, unless supported conclusively by the opposition (which is politically unlikely at present), would already have a hard time getting past rural backbenchers already put out by pensioners who nearly lost their medical cards (who incidentally, now appear to be a motivated political force, and kiss my ass if you think they will lend their support as a whole to a progressive campaign for equality for gays - they are far more likely to join the cacophony of opposition, for whatever reason).  Even without the backing of the main stakeholder, the gay community, this bill is far from being passed.

The naive belief that if we reject this we might get something better should look at the long running abortion question - 15 years after the "X" case, despite several referenda, abortion remains outlawed in Ireland.  Rejecting various alternative options didn't "open up" legislative options, all they did was undermine any kind of possible consensus that might have either thrown out the most tight restrictions OR opened them up in a limited fashion.  It "wasn't liberal enough" for the pro-choice campaign, and "too liberal" for the pro-life campaign.  And since the pro-life campaign still have the benefit of previous highly restrictive laws, in the medium term they have done very well and managed to keep Ireland away from having any kind of legal abortion services at all.

This is exactly where I suspect Noise will find themselves in 5 years time, if this law is not at least welcomed, albeit with dismay about its restrictedness.

I think Noise needs to take a far more strategic approach in the light of potential political instability, especially from backbenchers, and against the likelihood of the entire proposal disappearing for many years.  We need to go back to the drawing board and find a way to push through this change temporarily but still keep the needs of gay parents as a live issue for the future.  Rejecting this outright will leave us empty handed for many years to come