We need to bridge the gap between LGBT+ haves and have -nots

The past two issues of GCN have given me pause to think about the disparity of experience we have as LGBT+ people on this tiny island. Our youth issue last month, guest edited by the feisty and fabulous 18 year-old Emer Lorenzo, was an eye-opener in terms of young Irish LGBT+ people’s experiences. Part of that issue was the first Budding Burning Issues survey of LGBTs aged between 13 and 24, and its findings were in stark contrast to the image of acceptance and understanding that has abounded in Ireland since the marriage equality referendum.

Almost 600 respondents to the survey reported stigmatisation and lack of acceptance and inclusion, particularly in context of school, as the number one problem they face. The survey scratched the surface to show a country that is largely yet to catch up with a story that’s being sold, in which everything’s rosy in the LGBT+ garden now.

Our current issue underlines further chasms of experience. It’s our annual workplace diversity edition, in which we explore policies and activities in Irish-based companies and professional organisations that support and empower LGBT+ people. This year, among other things, we hear about corporates getting up to scratch on understanding and facilitating trans employees, we learn about a global communications network that’s supporting its employees in countries where LGBT+ people are at risk, and we hear about a group of workers from across the panoply of tech companies based in Ireland coming together to support, educate and network around LGBT+ issues.

On the flip side of that hugely enabling coin, we also have a feature about the experiences of LGBT+ asylum seekers in Ireland’s Direct Provision system, which couldn’t be more far removed from the privileged corridors of the corporates. The author of the feature, Chris O’Donnell, asks readers to put themselves in the place of LGBT+ people arriving on these shores, having fled countries where the punishment for being who they are ranges from imprisonment to torture to honour killings.

We see ourselves as a compassionate country, and while it’s true that our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade does great work abroad in terms of LGBT+ acceptance, the Direct Provision system is the opposite of humane. People are forced to live in anomalous groupings often for years without jobs, social security, the ability to cook their own food, or access to proper education and mental health services. LGBT+ asylum seekers who arrive into this system are especially vulnerable to further serious oppression and isolation, and they have no way out.

The feature gives our readers suggestions about how they can connect with, and support, LGBT+ people in Direct Provision. Perhaps if the two sides of the coin came together, the corporate and the displaced, maybe some good work to bridge the divide between the LGBT+ haves and have-nots in this country might be done.