Fun Fast Facts:
- Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1993.
- Anti-discrimination and employment laws in place since 1994.
- Civil partnerships legal since July 2010–passed the lower house without a need for a vote.
- Same-sex couple adoption not legal.
- Sex changes are not legally recognised.
LGBT-friendly organisation: Gay and Lesbian Equality Network of Ireland
- Focuses on influencing policy and works in partnership with mainstream organisations such as the government.
- GLEN’s vision for equality is that of full participation by lesbian, gay and bisexual people in all aspects of life and society.
- Instrumental in achieving the comprehensive Civil Partnership act in 2010.
W3JOY interviewed: Jerry Buttimer, openly gay TD in Ireland’s Parliament
Ireland is a good place to be gay now.
On the upcoming Constitutional Convention regarding same-sex marriage:
Same-sex marriage is not just a human right, but it’s an entitlement of all citizens.
I think it’s a very appropriate forum and venue within which to hold this discussion. First of all, to allow people to become more informed and secondly to have a lead-in period to a referendum.
The biggest fear that I have is, despite the changes we’ve made in the context of civil partnership, is that it will fall short in a referendum.
Support for change:
It’s exciting–progress has been made, although we have a long way to go of course.
We’ve probably have a small amount to go in converting and convincing the middle ground that we can–and in fact should have–same-sex marriage.
From talking to people on the ground, there is a growing acceptance that this is an entitlement to human rights.
Role of education in tackling homophobia:
Progress has been made, we’re breaking down barriers…In July of last year, the Langford Leader [a provincial paper] had on its front page a photo of a couple having a civil partnership. That never would have happened twenty years ago.
The world hasn’t ended with civil partnerships.
Transgender campaign:
It’s obviously a huge issue. We are definitely slow in this regard, but we have made progress.
At a time when you hear criticism of public service workers, the health officials who engage in this progress are an example of how you can have a very good public health system working.
W3JOY interviewed: Tiernen Brady, director of policy change, Gay and Lesbian Equality Network of Ireland
Currently in the Irish constitution it is presumed–although it doesn’t say it–that any reference to marriage means that it between a man and a woman. For that to change, the current political consensus is that there would have to be a referendum of the people. The constitutional convention is looking at whether that referendum should take place.
Less than twenty years ago, it was still a crime, and we have moved from 1993 to now where we have a very strong civil structure in place.
Marriage is a critically important issue, but we mustn’t let marriage overshadow all the other issues that gay and lesbian people face.
On the role of the Catholic Church:
At an Irish level, their presence isn’t as strong.
The proof would seem to point to the hierarchy being very much out of step with the vast majority of lay Catholics in Ireland who are in favour equality and don’t have an issue with their lesbian and gay family members, friends, community members from being treated as equal citizens.
On workplace diversity:
In GLEN, we just launched the Diversity Champions program which rates employers right across Ireland.
We have a lot of multinationals from all over the world who use Dublin as a base, especially high-tech companies like Facebook and Google. They have very large LGBT work groups already within their staff and they have very good support programs. It’s about making sure we can mirror that right across the workforce so that the daily experience of lesbian and gay people in Ireland is one of full equality where people can get on with their lives without fear of harassment or fear of victimisation.
On transgender issues:
It’s one of the areas where we have fallen down.
One of the things that we don’t want to see happening is that the “T” just becomes just a quiet “T” on the end of LGBT.
W3JOY interviewed: Brian Sheehan: director of Gay and Lesbian Equality Network of Ireland
Over the last 17 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993, Ireland has made radical strides in progress for LGB people. And there will be radical progress for transgendered people with the laws currently being explored around gender recognition.
Essentially, in the middle of the worst economic crisis Ireland has ever faced, we still managed to achieve civil partnership…so it is possible to make social progress in a time of economic crisis; It may not get the priority it would get at other times…but it is possible.
This has happened because there has been a great shift in focus to being a European- or American-focused country to being an internally focused country.
Total failings on the part of the Catholic Church over issues such as child sex abuse … the focus on old-fashioned, controlling homosexuality has fallen away all over the world, let alone in Ireland.
All political parties accept that a referendum is necessary.
All over the country, in every single county, lesbian and gay couples are having acceptance–not just tolerance, but acceptance.
There’s a climate shift where being gay has gone from being about individuals and sex to being about couples and love and commitment and increasingly about families.
Ireland was one of the first countries in the world to bring comprehensive [workplace] protection on the basis of sexual orientation.
W3JOY interviewed: Breed Lewis: director of JOY 94.9
The church is losing its grip with means that society is loosening up.
If you look back at Irish history, it has the strong Catholic flavour, but Ireland was a great birthplace for many great thinkers and many great writers. And lots of great outrageous characters came from Ireland, like Oscar Wilde. If you think. So while we have the strong religious theme, we have a lot of very forward thinkers.
There are theories that a lot of homosexuals entered the priesthood because it was a safe haven for them when they couldn’t come out…rather than come out, they chose celibacy. That’s not to say that they were the priests abusing children…I think that would be a very long bow to draw.
People in Ireland, while we do have a section of the community that may be bigoted, the majority of Irish people are open and Christian in the true sense of the word.
W3JOY interviewed: Coner O’Kane, Mr Gay North Ireland
Both Prides in Belfast and Dublin are growing at the moment.
I want to start a domino effect. If Northern and Southern Ireland have changed as much as they have in the last few years.
I want to change other countries, like Russia…
I want to be the gay that makes the change worldwide.
Published on: Aug 21, 2012 @ 9:32
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:00 — 24.0MB)