Festival funds row causes a split in gay community

Date Published: 07-Jul-2009

A SPLIT in Galway’s gay and lesbian community is unlikely to be healed before this year’s Gay Pride festival, with those opposing the organising committee vowing to boycott the events planned for the 20th anniversary.
At a meeting held on Wednesday, around 140 people turned out to voice their disquiet over the way the August event has been forging ahead, despite unresolved issues about the finances from last year’s festival.
The meeting was chaired by an independent chairperson commissioned by GLEN, the national Gay and Lesbian Equality Network and was attended by the Garda LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender) Community Liaison Officer.
As a result of the row, two organising committees were elected at two AGMs held on April 17 and 25.
However the committee formed on April 17 has now stepped down. The committee formed on April 25 refused to attend the meeting. A new organising committee was elected and a second working group was set up to look at the feasibility of establishing an umbrella organisation to represent and address LGBT issues in Galway, known as the Galway LGBT Action Group. This group will also build links with various statutory and government agencies.
Joann McCormack, chairperson of the April 25 committee, has vowed to continue running the event.
“It’s a total mess basically,” she admitted.
“It’s going to go ahead, we’re in our 20th year and by next year we could have a resource centre, our focus has been on getting enough funds to set that up. I was elected. I have a mandate set out for the next couple of months.