A Word From The Chair of Pride

I would like to invite you all to join us for this year’s Dublin LGBTQ Pride. Pride has been a part of Dublin for over 40 years, and since 1983 we have marched through this city, in protest, in anger, in joy and in celebration. And this year is no different.

In those intervening years our community has changed a great deal. This is thanks to the wonderful people who have stood up and fought for our place in this country, the people who created non-profits and meeting groups, who founded LGBT sports teams and helplines. Those people who have made our rights their work. To them we owe a debt of gratitude.

To work for a community though, you first have to have one. It isn’t easy living an authentic life, to stand up and tell the world who you really are, but LGBT people have been doing that in Ireland for decades. From the people who marched to Fairview Park to demand justice for the killers of gay man Declan Flynn, to those that stood up and said ‘we are not criminals’. From the people who refused to allow the state to decide their gender, to the people who knocked on doors during the marriage referendum, not asking for permission but setting an example of a more open and compassionate Ireland. All that has taken extraordinary amounts of courage, which we wish to celebrate this year.

We have been set such a beautiful example of the power of honesty and bravery by those that have gone before us, and that baton is being passed to an incredible generation of young people, with a reminder that you don’t have to have super powers to be a hero. Every coming out, dressing up, teenage crush, hidden touch, is an act of authentic heroism. Show us what your cape is made of – join us on June 24 for Dublin LGBTQ Pride and ‘Find Your Inner Hero’.