Check out the latest Huffington Post article by our board member Patrick McNeil. Here’s an excerpt:
“During a talk called “All The Little Things” posted on the TEDx Talks YouTube channel last week, Irish drag queen Panti Bliss – appearing before a crowd in Dublin last September – explained why an act like holding your partner’s hand isn’t so thoughtless for everyone.
“I am 45 years old and I have never once unselfconsciously held hands with a lover in public,” Bliss says. “I am 45 years old and I have never once casually, comfortably, carelessly held hands with a partner in public.”
Why? Because around the world still today, street harassment is a major problem for women, LGBT people, people of color, people with disabilities, and low-income people. Bliss’ focus is on homophobia, as was her similarly personal and impassioned speech about a year ago when she asked, “Have you ever been standing at a pedestrian crossing when a car drives by and in it are a bunch of lads, and they lean out the window and they shout “fag!” and throw a milk carton at you?”
“Now it doesn’t really hurt. It’s just a wet carton and anyway they’re right – I am a fag. But it feels oppressive.”
Bliss’ experiences aren’t unusual. Actually, they’re common. In the United States, LGBT people are more likely than straight people to report experiencing street harassment (both verbal and physical), according to a national study released last year by the nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment. And the harassment starts young: 70 percent of LGBT people said they experienced it by age 17, compared to 49 percent of straight people (still a significant figure).”
