I live in Belfast. I have friends who are in rugby circles.

I seriously cannot fathom how they were acquitted. The whats app texts were so damning, with her immediately saying she was raped, and one of them saying she was in hysterics. How can that be ignored, along with the fact that they deleted parts of their conversation and their stories were not consistent! And the…

Ugh. Just reading the trial recaps linked here, I’m haunted by the fact that another woman walked in on this, saw multiple guys having sex with a young women, wasn’t clear on whether it was consensual or not, but then she walked away anyway.

I was at the Dublin march.

One of my friends in Dublin posted about this on FB last night and the reaction thread on both sides was just nuts. Some of the info posted absolutely made me believe the victim and these two guys need to be thrown under the jail.
(I won’t post the screen shots as it was pretty stomach turning stuff.)

A “fun” fact: at the trial, one of the lawyers asked why the young woman didn’t scream for help when there were, and I quote, “middle class women in the building”.

I read that tweet as well. The same thing happened to me at my last job with coverage of the Ellen Pao trial.

Saying you’re not homophobic or even genuinely not being homophobic doesn’t equal supporting gay rights. Plenty of people who “don’t have a problem with gay people” think same sex couples should be satisfied with civil unions and there’s nothing wrong with a bakery refusing to make them a cake.

I have family there who sent me the story and I’ve been following it. Knew this was exactly how it was going to end, this is how it plays out everywhere. She knew it too, she knew they’d get off scot free and she was proven right by the jury. Reading the texts I cannot imagine how in the world the jury could have…

Somewhat related, there’s a just concluded rugby rape trial in Belfast, NI that ended in the most predictably rape culture way https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/paddy-jackson-stuart-olding-rugby-14461177 

They didn’t want a baby, he just didn’t want to wrap it up.

I’ll just say, I didn’t get it. Then I saw Call Me by Your Name...and now I get it. He is my boyfriend and son, I just want what’s best for him.

Of course Joanna Rothkopf’s boyfriend and son Timothee was polite enough to wait in line. She has been an excellent girlfriend and mother to him.

Well this took a hard turn..

Ummm Christina looks amazing!

Created a burner just to say this couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Seriously, he is a Grade-A Asshole, even by Hollywood standards. Weinstein-like in his temper and how he treats people. I’ve witnessed him having MULTIPLE toddler-style temper tantrums over the dumbest shit and he’s had people fired over all…

This is the only appropriate take.

I grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.