No: 8 The Prides Of Ireland Dublin Pride | Pocketmags.com

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No: 8 The Prides Of Ireland Dublin Pride

The Dublin LGBTQ Pride parade has been gracing the capital’s streets for a little over 30 years now and although many see it as a rainbow celebration of joy and acceptance, its origins speak to a very different experience for our community.

Although the official Pride parade started in 1983, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the first public protest of our community in 1974, outside the Department of Justice and British Embassy. The brave souls that took to the streets paved the way for the safe and inclusive festival we are now able to celebrate each June. They were willing to step up in an Ireland where being gay was not only illegal but a source of stigma and violence, with a number of events in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1982 Declan Flynn was murdered in a homophobic attack. The following year, when his killers were handed down suspended sentences, the gay community was enraged. Newspapers at the time reported up to 700 people joining together with the Dublin Gay Collective in what was one of the first big shows that the gay community was not one to be silenced; even in an Ireland where being gay was still illegal. This was a turning point in the gay rights movement in Ireland. People attended the first Pride parade organised by the National Gay Federation later that year.

In 1993 the Pride parade received a boost as people celebrated the decriminalisation of homosexuality. This started Pride on a celebratory path, as people gathered in a feeling of solidarity and the search for equality. Since then, Dublin LGBTQ Pride has kept evolving as the community and the city does too. There have been many stepping stones to be proud of along the way.

The festival has become a place to highlight the needs of the community, to start conversations about the next steps to equality, to educate the next generation on the possibilities that lie ahead of them and the history that shaped them.

Just as the march took a necessary political stance on the lead-up to 2015, it was a joy for the community to have an opportunity during that Pride to celebrate the enactment of gender recognition legislation and the successful referendum for marriage qquality.

This however is not the end of the journey. There is much to be done to ensure that the families that we have created around ourselves, be they based on romance or friendship, have an equal standing in the law. We have a space now to celebrate and protect the rights of the people we love; parents, siblings, children - and so this year we will be singing ‘We are Family’ at the top of our lungs. Come join us.

Clodagh Leonard is the Chair of Dublin Pride, www.dublinpride.ie

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