Sir, - Patricia Sleeman (February 9th) reports that her mother's attempt to place an advertisement to set up a support group for parents of lesbian and gay children was deemed "unsuitable" by a local paper in Cork. This is not the first time that an organisation concerned with lesbian or gay issues has been refused access to services readily available to other voluntary organisations.
The Equal Status Bill, which is currently before the Seanad, was intended to prohibit the kind of discrimination that Ms Sleeman reports. A ban on discriminating against organisations (as distinct from individuals) was included in the previous Equal Status Bill. It is not included in the current Bill. Minister John O'Donoghue admitted in the Dail that "there has been an about-turn" and said that this aspect was dropped because of problems with the wording in the first Bill.
Instead of trying to solve the problem of poor wording in the original Bill, Minister O'Donoghue has used it as an excuse to leave organisations unprotected. - Yours, etc.,
Cathal Kelly, Chairperson, Gay and Lesbian Suicide Prevention Initiative, South William Street, Dublin 2.