Defence Forces, Courts Service asked to withdraw from Pride parades after Cathal Crotty suspended sentence
by mervynskidmore
Defence Forces, Courts Service asked to withdraw from Pride parades after Cathal Crotty suspended sentence
by mervynskidmore
25 comments
Bizarre that the Courts Service have been asked to withdraw. They have an administrative role only and have nothing to do with the outcomes of court cases.
Fairly wild to blame the DF for Crotty’s actions.Crotty is a scumbag but he had the same right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty as everyone else does under law. The DF had to wait until he was convicted by a civil court so they could commence court martial proceedings.
The suspended sentence was a disgrace but that was the judges decision and not the DF’s.
Rosa organised protests in support of Natasha O’Brien (which I fully support) but stated “The capitalist system rests on the organised violence of its armies and police. The legal system and the violent apparatus of the state protect the wealth and interests of the super rich and corporations.” Which is a bit too American for me.
Edit: for those insisting that the commandant provided a character reference, he didn’t. By military law, he was required to attend with copies of Crotty’s record sheet and provide it if the court demanded (which they did) See [here](https://x.com/RACO_DF/status/1804168354665554141) for the relevant DFR thanks to RACO.
Parade originally founded to stop the discrimination of entire groups now discriminating entire groups lol
You can’t go excluding people based on where they work. That would be *discrimination*. Or is it ok when they discriminate against themselves?
More room for the multinationals.
If anything it would be positive to see representation from the defence forces.
Hmm not sure banning the DF is the best response. Any individuals who would be participating in Pride are unlikely to support Crotty, I would guess, and I think it is a group where it’s good to promote LGBT people feeling confident in being publicly gay.
Not very inclusive of the event organisers. There’s a certain irony in their actions.
So counter productive. Bad bad call.
To sum up the comments: not allowing LGBTQ+ soldiers to come to pride *in uniform* (see here: they’re still allowed to come out of uniform) is the most egregious act of discrimination committed in Ireland in living memory and makes the organisers just as bad as homophobic soldiers, somehow.
Edit: For the avoidance of doubt, this is sarcasm.
If your goal is to ostracize and attack gay people in those organizations congratulations. I am assuming the pesron who came up with this feels really good about themselves. Hatred and exclusion have no place in a pride parade.
The homophobes on here are really trying to reach for a gotcha that doesn’t exist, despite multiple people pointing out the stupidity of their statements.
Any organisation that tacitly accepts or supports homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny are not welcome at Pride. Why? Because why would you accept lip service from an organisation that undermines what you stand for by it’s actions? That’s not discrimination. That’s not tolerating intolerance.
Service members should be asking themselves, if they really care about attending pride in uniform (if this is not just a thing homophobes are whining about to try undermine pride), are they okay with the defense forces tacitly giving the a-okay to the homophobes and misogynists to behave badly?
Such bullshit
This may be throwing out the baby with the bath water, but honestly, I’m ok with that in this case. A stance needs to be made here and as an employee of a big corporation, if they were uninvited to Pride for this, I’d be happy and would still support Pride
I posted this in the other thread, but I just think this is incredibly disappointing. Now more than ever I think it is important to show the solidarity the DF has with the LGBTQ community, not hide it. I think this will only feed into the cycle of fear towards the organisation and it’s people.
The Defence Forces LGBTQ group, “Defend With Pride” have done a lot to further their cause both inside and outside the organisation. To tell them now that they are not welcome wearing the uniform they have pride in, while representing their sexuality and lifestyle they have pride in, seems overly harsh at the least and hypocritical at the most.
It is important that young boys and girls see all sections of society represented in these parades. And it is important to bigots to see that all sections of society are represented in these parades. You only have to look at the backlash from homophobes online when DF personnel are in the parades to know how effective it is.
Cathal Crotty was not wearing his uniform when he attacked that women, he was not wearing that uniform when he was being homophobic.
The judiciary should have acted, but they failed and the Defence Forces will now go through their own process to discipline and hopefully remove him. The officer who provided a testimony, did so under legal obligation as is the case with all DF soldiers in the courts, nothing more.
The only thing this serves to do is marginalise those who are part of the LGBTQ community and who serve and embolden the bigots who now have a new thing to cling onto.
Just a really disappointing decision all around.
This is a crazy decision…as a card carrying homo I cannot wrap my head around excluding all for the actions of one
I don’t think that passing a judgment on the entire collective based on the actions of one individual, or a minority within that collective is a good idea. It’s an unhealthy knee jerk response.
The DF has its own legal system apparently, and this case is being processed there. Most likely, Crotty will be dismissed. I think a punishment could’ve been meted out sooner though, so the process seems inefficient. It was established by the court that Crotty was guilty of those offences, so I don’t think the extra proceedings are necessary; I think immediately dismissing him would have been better.
The DF ought to at least be able to have a presence at these parades – I imagine it would send a more positive message than their exclusion. They also should redesign whatever disciplinary procedures they have for this sort of situation.
Are we going to get a wave of weirdo “visitors” mass reporting and giving terrible takes about what Pride owes everyone else again today?
Pride orgs do not have any obligation to pinkwash any institution, particularly one with as complicated and fraught a relationship with the community as the DF. Pride is not just a colordy carnival everyone is entitled to enjoy to the personal specifications they demand, it is a community event and you are welcome *under that community’s terms*. In Ireland, the modern Pride movement began in the protests after Declan Flynn was beaten to death and his killers walked out of court scot free, it should not need to be explained why this story hit a nerve.
I would never, ever have felt an entitlement to have worn my uniform to Pride, and indeed I have refused to represent my current corporate employer at it.
Why would the court services even be at a pride parade
Discrimination by anti-discrimination organisation? Amazing
Inclusivity for we but not for thee.
Neither a job nor a uniform are equivalent to an orientation or identity and pretending you think they’re equivalent like it’s some kind of masterstroke makes you look like a fucking dipstick. Near Elon Musk levels of self-clownmanship.
Straight people do not get to tell us how to stage our own community event to their satisfaction, and as somebody who’s had involvement with the DF I am not going to humour the idea the gay community owes them *anything*.
If you really need to see the uniform in a hurry this week, don’t worry, Cathal Crotty’s buddies are almost certainly still wearing theirs right this minute.
Imagine being in the idf and feeling embarrassed enough by the story of him to begin with, but to be an lgbt member of the idf, it must be very hurtful to be condemned or to have this committee (who preaches love, light and inclusivity) in effect shun you because of who you work for. Regardless of their intention, chances are that will be the way they make those lgbt members of the idf feel. The irony in this exclusion is surreal.
Why are people more angry at the DF being asked to withdraw from pride and not at the fact there seems to be present and historical violence against women in the DF?
ITT: arrogant heterosexual paternalistic keyboard warriors fundamentally misunderstanding the ideals behind the pride movement, clutching their pearls over being “DiScRiMiNaTeD AgAiNsT” (read a single queer history book PLEASE), and dictating to queer people how we should adjust *our* ideals to align closer with “mainstream” (i.e. capitalist, Christian, imperialist, patriarchal) ideals so that our existence will be more palatable to them
And people wonder why we still need Pride
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