Great Expectations

From The Team

Welcome, dear reader, to our November issue and one of our personal favourites - the annual Youth Issue. For this issue, we hear from the next generation of LGBT+ change-makers.

Fast Forward

In this very special edition of GCN, young people from all over the country talk about the issues that matter to them. The authors speak about lgbt+ people finding solace online.

Culture Club

Pop icons always look for new ways to excite their audience and Madonna is no exception. Reinvention clichés aside, Madonna does things differently even when the obligatory mammoth tour rolls around. And yet her decision to undergo a lengthy theatre tour left many fans surprised

In Awe Of Mná A Lesbian+ Podcast

Emily O’Connell and Orla Keaveney, co-hosts of a new podcast on LB culture in Ireland, discuss how the podcast came about and what they hope to achieve with it.

Change NOW

Originally started by Greta Thunberg in 2018 when she sat outside the Swedish Parliament on school days holding a sign reading “school strike for climate”.

Time After Time

To Kill a Time by Stanlee Keefe is an arresting novel which encapsulates what it was to be a gay man growing up in the 1980’s, having to navigate the subtleties of the Dublin gay scene with all its cladestine grittiness and shaded secrecy. Yet all is not darkness, there is great beauty within this book, including a depiction of a deeply heartfelt and moving love story

A village of its own

Direct Provision has been overwhelmingly recognised as a system that strips asylum seekers of their dignity, presenting a new set of problems for vulnerable people already fleeing persecution. Much has been said about the difficult and frightening situation for LGBT+ people in Direct Provision, but what about a person just coming to terms with their sexuality? Chris O’Donnell speaks to a young LGBT+ woman who entered the system at the age of 13

Beyond The Bar

The LGBT+ community has a long history with alcohol and substance abuse, understandable considering the fact that some of the first refuges for LGBT+ people to meet and talk were gay clubs and bars. But as times have progressed, Frankie Smith asks why there aren’t more alcohol- free spaces available for LGBT+ youth

#END YOUTH HOMELESSNESS

Earlier this year, Focus Ireland, in partnership with BeLonG To, commissioned research into LGBT+ youth homelessness in Ireland, in order to gain greater insight into the ways in which young LGBT+ people enter, exit and experience homelessness. Ahead of the publication of the study’s findings, Stephen Moloney speaks with those researching, and working at the frontline of the issue

Nobody puts baby in the corner

On October 30, Drop Dead Twice will host I’m Baby a night showcasing the immense talents of queens new to the drag scene. Oisin Kenny talks to Nara Hope, organiser of the event, and other baby queens to see what the “new queers on the block” have in store for us

A Fine Art

The awesome folk at LGBT+ Health South Tipperary are about

Sex Ed

A major review of RSE in primary and post-primary schools

Your Club Your Country

The Emerald Warriors would like your support! Every year, they

The crack where the light gets in

The creators of the powerful and deeply affecting theatre piece, Faultline, share with Peter Dunne the electric thrill, and the weight of responsibility which come along with making a show based around true, and emotionally affecting, events

Taking It Global

Around the world, young people, people of colour and members of the LGBT+ community are leading the movement to fight the climate crisis. Jade Wilson highlights some of those changemakers taking a stand