Irish councillor receives homophobic hate mail
An Irish councillor has revealed that he has received homophobic hate mail to his home address, the second time this year.
Councillor Francis Timmons, who represents Clondalkin, Dublin, as an independent, said he received the letter earlier this week, and has handed into the police for investigation.
“The person who sent this needs to be aware of its offensive connotations and that homophobic behaviour is not acceptable in our inclusive and progressive country,” he told Dublin Live.
Timmons said the police are investigating whether the letter is linked to another he received last summer.
In July he and his husband received a photo of Pope Benedict and a letter about World Family Day
The envelope was addressed to “Darren and Francis, ‘The S***-Pushers Den.’”
“It was a horrible thing to get, absolutely vile,” Timmons told the Dublin Gazette.
“It’s sad to see this kind of thing still going on in modern-day Ireland.”
Timmons said just the day before he had been working on LGBT strategy for South Dublin County Council.
“I’m in politics, I can grow a hard skin, but my partner is not involved in public life and he doesn’t expect that kind of stuff,” he said.
“He took it very bad, he was very upset.”
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Timmons posted a picture of the letter on Facebook, and received an overwhelming response of support.
Just last month, Timmons and his partner Darren got married, after over 18 years together, showing they weren’t going to let homophobic incidents hold us back.
“We’ve come such a long way in Ireland, but this just shows that we’ve a bit of work yet to do. I respect other people’s lives and all I ask is that they do the same,” Timmons said.
