Anita Thoma is probably one of Ireland s best known lesbian commentators, although she modestly questions that assertion when I put it to her.
Nevertheless she has been interviewed on television by Pat Kenny, Claire McKeown and Gerry Ryan, and has contributed to many radio broadcasts on lesbian issues. She has frequently been interviewed in print and is herself a former features editor on Gay Community News. Formerly a volunteer with Lesbians Organising Together (LOT), she has more recently held the post of Press Officer with Lesbians for Education and Awareness (LEA). She currently combines her career as a chef with her duties as a committee member of the National Lesbian and Gay Federation (NLGF).
March 2000 saw the tenth anniversary of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organisation (ILGO) in New York s protest at the banning of that group from marching in the city s Patrick s Day parade. The parade s organisers, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a group with strong links to the Cathloic establishment in the city, consider that Gay and Lesbian groups do not fit in with the ethos of the parade, and despite several court challenges, the ban remains in force.
To mark the tenth anniversary of ILGO s struggle, Anita travelled to the United States with a group of about fifty Irish men and women to lend their support to their Irish-American brothers and sisters. It was to be a particularly dramatic experience, as she told Hot Press.
Because ILGO have been refused permission from city authorities to hold a static protest, the demonstration takes the form of a peaceful moving picket, with chants and banners, that actually takes place several hours before the parade itself starts. The reason for this is that there s no intention to disrupt the parade, which might be counterproductive, but the problems arise when the Police Department block off the entrance to Fifth Avenue, and with nowhere else to go, protesters are obliged to sit down and are then subsequently arrested.
I was arrested at 10.35, and was carried to a police van by four policemen. I was handcuffed behind my back and informed that I was being arrested for breach of the peace, and because I refused to walk to the paddy-wagon I incurred another charge of resisting arrest. In total, there were sixty-nine arrests; twelve of those people had travelled from Ireland. I confess that I was quite frightened by the sight of police in riot gear, who are of course armed, and the presence of NYPD officers equipped with still and videocameras recording individual s faces gave the whole thing a big-brother type feel. I felt very intimidated.
Anita was taken to Manhattan s central booking station, at 100 Centre St., and stayed there for the next eight hours. She wryly describes the cell she shared with three others as Just like you d see on TV .
Obviously I m not an expert on US law, so I didn t know how long I might be detained, five hours or five days, it could ve been either, sh elaborates. My belongings and shoelaces were confiscated. Throughout the day my cell-mates and I were processed, photographed and fingerprinted, before finally being transferred, in shackles incidentally, to a correctional facility in New York, staffed by prison officers, before being arraigned for trial. Here we were held with other women who were in for other offences, but we actually recieved support from these women, who commented on the ridiculousness of our arrest. Ultimately your spirits begin to sag though; it s difficult to remain cheery when you re in a grotty prison cell. There were open toilets and gym-mat type bedding so it wasn t pleasant.
Anita was finally brought to court after spending more than 24 hours in custody. Obliged to plead guilty, she was sentenced to community service for breach of the peace, resisting arrest and disrupting government administration. In practice, an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal means that her record will be wiped clean providing she commits no futher crimes in the next six months. Nonetheless, it was hardly an ideal weekend in the Big Apple. So what, ultimately, remains her motivation?
It s an issue of civil rights, and relative degrees of comfort. It s crazy that in a country like the United States, lesbians and gays are being discriminated against by their own countrymen, something that, incidentally, would be illegal here in Ireland. I m angry that Irish politicians, some of whom I voted for, give tacit approval to this discrimination by attending the parade. I don t think that s acceptable. The United States is famed for being the land of the free, the home of the brave, but it s not the rule for everyone, it seems, and I support those who question the morality of that. What we re trying to do is break down hate and prejudice.