A NUMBER of homophobic posters have appeared in Waterford recently, sparking anger within Irish LGBT communities.
The posters, which were first spotted at the start of week, display the words ‘Straight Pride’, and feature a photo of a heterosexual married couple.
The caption also reads: “It’s natural, it’s worked for thousands of years, and you can make babies.”
It’s the third time in a week the city has been dogged by public displays of homophobia.
Over the weekend, LGBT pride flags – which were erected to celebrate pride month – were cut down and burned near City Hall.
LGBT campaigner Debbie O’Rourke said: “My first reaction was just shock, like, ‘what is this?’ And then it was like where are they?
Homophobic hate on show in Waterford City again tonight – covered the place in ‘straight pride’ posters. This follows the burning of a Pride flag and the cutting down of the replacement Pride flag in just over a week. #Pride pic.twitter.com/OMQdQBhhn0
— Michelle Byrne (@Michelle_Byrne_) June 16, 2021
“They were all along the Quay. The picture was of a poster on a phone box, but they were all along the Quay on poles. They were all around the town,” she told extra.ie.
“They were A4 sized posters, printed quality, all over the inner city. People are getting in touch to say they’ve seen them, but we think we have most of them down now.
“Straight pride is just not a thing. The language included in the poster, it’s not new, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before, they’re common things that are used against the LGBT community,” Debbie added.
“It’s similar to the messaging we saw and was used against us in the marriage equality campaign — that focus on family and on babies.
“There’s just a preoccupation with the sex that queer people have, it always comes up. We don’t have the same fascination with straight people’s sex lives.”
The posters have been reported to gardaí, and those that appeared in the city earlier this week have now been taken down, but Debbie says she fears there’ll be more.
“There are people in Ireland who hold those beliefs and are willing to act on them and that’s what’s scary,” she explained.
“We have to be wary, but it’s about not letting that fear win. That’s really important. For young people, they have much more fear than adults around coming out and things like that.”
