In February, one of Ireland’s most celebrated drag queens, Panti Bliss, aka Rory O’Neill, took to the stage at the Abbey Theatre, the national theatre of Ireland, following a performance of The Risen People, rising even higher by giving an impassioned speech about homophobia and oppression.
Bliss received a standing ovation for her speech, which followed an appearance as his male counterpart O’Neill a few weeks earlier on The Saturday Night Show in which he called out several Irish public figures as homophobic. When some of the people he named were “legally upset,” as O’Neill put it, The Saturday Night Show’s network, RTÉ, removed his statements from its online player, issued an apology and gave a reported 80,000 euros to members of the Iona Institute Catholic lobbying group.
But Bliss has found support in the Pet Shop Boys, who have remixed her heartfelt words, taking activism to the dancefloor:
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