Three Decades of Legislative Change! | Pocketmags.com

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Three Decades of Legislative Change!

More broadly, GCN was born into a decade that saw a number of defeats for socially progressive movements in Ireland, with the passage of the so-called ‘pro life’ 8th Amendment in 1983 and the rejection of divorce in 1986. (The latter was reversed in 1995, the former hopefully in 2018.)

Kieran Rose, Chris Robson, Phil Moore and Suzy Byrne outside Dáil Eireann, celebrating the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993

The 1990s saw a gradual opening up of Irish society, not least because the power and influence of the Catholic Church, which underpinned a stifling conservatism, began to erode in the face of multiple clerical child abuse revelations. Homosexuality was finally decriminalised in 1993 (with an equal age of consent) and anti-discrimination legislation was enacted in 1998 (employment) and 2000 (goods and services).

The gay community would suffer a setback in March 2004 with the first explicit legislative ban on same-sex couples marrying under the terms of the Civil Registration Act. The minister responsible for the act, Mary Coughlan, remarked at the time that she could never envisage Irish society embracing marriage equality or adoption rights for same-sex couples. She would thankfully be proved wrong in both those predictions.

In 2010 the Civil Partnership Act was passed. Some, including most of the LGBT+ advocacy groups at the time, welcomed it as a stepping-stone towards full equality, while others viewed it as entrenching a second-class status. Regardless, the marriage equality movement would continue to gain momentum.

In April 2013, a constitutional convention comprised of citizen delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of marriage equality being enshrined in the Constitution after hearing powerful personal testimonies. This process demonstrated the power of LGBT visibility in influencing public opinion – a point which would be spectacularly reinforced during the equality referendum itself two years later. As the famous Harvey Milk once remarked: “The most political act of any gay person is simply to ‘come out’.”

In May 2015, Irish people would vote convincingly in favour of marriage equality. A few weeks after that historic referendum, the Gender Recognition Act was passed, based on the crucially important principle of self-determination. At the end of the same year Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act was amended, making it illegal for religious-run schools to discriminate against LGBT teachers over their sexuality. An important message was conveyed about Ireland in the process: This is a country supportive of LGBT+ equality – a point that needs to be respected and understood by all who live in or visit Ireland.

In 2018, we have a gay Taoiseach and it would appear that progressives have won most of the great social debates that have animated Irish society for so long. It would be easy then to be lulled into a false belief that our work is done and that full LGBT+ emancipation has been secured. However, much remains to be achieved, not least on the legislative front.

The 2016 Burning Issues 2 report published by the National LGBT Federation revealed a strong appetite among LGBT+ people for further progress, with the need for comprehensive hate crime legislation emerging as the leading priority. Pride marches were also seen as more important than ever, while there was near unanimous support for education equality and an end to religious control of our publicly-funded schools. Meanwhile, a bill aimed at banning the abusive and discredited practice known as so-called gay ‘conversion therapy’ has just been published by Senator Fintan Warfield, with input from the National LGBT Federation (NXF).

Until anti-LGBT+ prejudice has been eradicated from society, and LGBT+ citizens enjoy real and tangible equality across all spheres of Irish life, our work must and will continue. Meanwhile, from Putin’s Russia to the Trump White House, to the likes of Egypt and Indonesia and beyond, LGBT+ communities find themselves under increasing attack as extreme religious and nationalistic sentiment is used to fan the flames of bigotry. Ireland is not immune from these ugly global developments and we need to be ever vigilant regarding our hard-won gains. There is simply no room for complacency.

Adam Long is a board member of the National LGBT Federation

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