Galway’s Gay Social Scene ‘Abysmal’
by Peter Harper
The preliminary results of a survey of lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGBT) NUIG students, entitled ‘Being Gay in Galway’, were released last week by Vesna Malesevic, a lecturer in Sociology at the University.
The research project, carried out between Autumn 2008 and early 2009, investigated the social and cultural experiences of student members of the LGBT community here in Galway.
Ms. Malesevic sought to establish the experience of this community in terms of ‘coming out’ – both to family and to oneself – the reaction of parents, family and friends, as well as the overall experience of being gay in Galway.
The students who participated were between 17 and 40 and have lived in Galway for periods from a few months to over ten years. The survey found that average age at which a person realised they were gay, lesbian or bisexual was between the ages of 12 and 14 – an experience some described as upsetting, while others were convinced the feelings were just a phase.
Ms. Malesevic noted that “there was not one case where a person said that they were happy with the realisation”.
The age range at which respondents revealed their sexual orientation to others was between 15 and 20 years and almost all found that coming out to fathers was more difficult.
The reaction of parents – so crucial in the life and wellbeing of a young LGBT person – varied from those who insisted that “it was a sin against nature”, or “a terrible mistake”, to the more positive experience of one respondent who recalled how his mother told him: “I don’t understand it but I’ll always love you”. Such a reaction, said this respondent, “made all the apprehension go away”.
For many of the respondents, moving to Galway from small towns provided a ‘fresh start’ as coming out was viewed in many areas as “socially unacceptable.” The ‘Gay in Galway’ student society (GIGsoc) in NUIG was praised in the survey for being an open, proud and happy space, providing a community which for one respondent “made me comfortable with myself as gay”.
Such a Society is the exception in what respondents generally believe to otherwise be “an abysmal, small social scene very centred on alcohol”. There was a noticeable hope in the survey that the other social venues in Galway would become more ‘gay friendly’.
The connection between religion and sexual identification was also explored in the survey with almost all respondents reporting that some form of religious practice was present in their childhood. Today, however, beliefs vary between those who find no issue of being both gay and Catholic, and those who find it impossible to be both as a result of the Church’s stance on homosexuality.
Ms. Malesvic is continuing to analyse the findings and hopes to present more detailed results of the survey in the coming months.
