When the next issue of Ireland's leading gay magazine hits newsstands on the 25th of this month, it will be edited for the first time by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered teenagers.
It illustrates a growing confidence within the gay community, the editor of GCN (Gay Community News) magazine has said.
Speaking as the magazine celebrates its 200th issue, Brian Finnegan yesterday described the teen issue, planned for later this month, as "a further step along the way in the quest of gay empowerment".
"One of our contributors to the 201st issue is 15 and 'out' as gay in his school. This issue is something that would have been unheard of when I was a teenager," he said yesterday.
GCN was first published in 1988, a time when homosexual sex was a criminal offence. "It's hard to imagine such a time ever existed," Finnegan said.
"When it was first published GCN was an underground freesheet that was delivered to gay bars in anonymous brown packaging for fear those bars would be identified as 'queer'."
The magazine's founder and original editor, Tonie Walsh, said the magazine reflects Irish life "more sharply" than other publications.
"It has become a gay magazine about gay Ireland that is accessible," he said. "Nowadays it is read by as many heterosexual as gay people who enjoy its content because it's not about separatism anymore. It's about including straight people and about widening our ideas and understanding of sexual orientation. It's also about recognising the levels of sexual pluralism in our society."
The Dublin Devils, the country's first gay football team, recently reached the quarter finals of the Gay Games but were knocked out during a penalty shoot-out by the Los Angeles team, West Hollywood Eclipse.
Dublin Devils chairman John McNamara said they were looking for more players and hoped that gay soccer teams would be founded across the country.
www.gcn.ie
www. dublindevilsfc.com
