LGBTQ Agenda: Cork, Ireland mayor visits SF LGBTQ history museum
Like a lot of visitors to the GLBT Historical Society Museum, Colm Kelleher, Lord Mayor of Cork, Ireland, said he was most impressed with one exhibit in particular, the bloodstained jacket worn by the late gay leader and San Francisco supervisor, Harvey Milk, when he was fatally shot in his City Hall office in 1978.It's a powerful exhibit, to be sure, and probably one that leaves a lasting impression on a lot of elected officials and others who see it.The museum was just one of several visits the mayor would be paying to various sites around San Francisco, including a stop at City Hall where he joined Mayor London Breed at a reception where they raised the Irish flag ahead of St.
Patrick's Day. As he toured the small museum in the city's LGBTQ Castro district on the morning of March 11 with members of the museum's staff, employees of the Irish Consulate General, and some of his own staffers, as well, the young politician — he was 35 when he was elected by Cork City councillors to the office in 2021 — seemed visibly moved by much of what he saw.He recounted the time he heard from friends that his best friend, a man he'd known since childhood, was gay.
If it was true, Kelleher, a straight ally, said, he had been the last to hear of it. Concerned, he flew from Ireland to London where his friend was living at the time to find out.
It was true, his friend told him. He'd been afraid to say anything to Kelleher, a fact that cut deeply. "When he came out to me," said Kelleher, "it was a real eye-opener for me."The Ireland both men had grown up in was, as Kelleher said, a very repressive society.
