NFX at Dublin Pride 2023: A Year of Significance

The National LGBT Federation (NXF) is looking forward to once again participating in the Dublin LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations. The festivities this year are especially noteworthy as we mark a number of hugely significant anniversaries - 30 years since the stigma of criminalisation was finally removed from the lives of Irish gay citizens, 40 years since the first Pride March and 50 years since the founding of the first gay rights movement in Ireland. The NXF Pride Political Debate, which has firmly established itself as a key flagship event of the celebrations, takes place on the evening of Thursday, June 22, and will feature a line-up of leading social and political thinkers discussing all the major LGBTQ+ policy priorities of our community in 2023.

Chaired once again by this author, I will be seeking the views of my panellists on how we can ensure that crucially important Hate Offences legislation, due to be enacted this year, meets the needs of LGBTQ+ communities, is victim-centred and part of a wider response tackling the scourge of hate and extremism, both online and offline. I will also be seeking the views of panellists on other pressing LGBTQ+ priorities, including a comprehensive prohibition on the abusive and discredited practice known as ‘conversion therapy’. Labelled a form of torture by the United Nations, it has absolutely no place in any civilised society.

2023 is also the year when the Government has promised to deliver on its commitment to expunge the ‘crimes’ that continue to appear on the records of gay and bisexual men who were convicted under the homophobic laws that were in force in Ireland until 1993. Widely recognised as an egregious violation of basic human rights and dignity, the Irish State offered a formal apology to the LGBTQ+ community in 2018 for these shameful laws. The second leg of that process involves the removal of convictions for what would be perfectly lawful activity today.

While such a scheme is welcome and long overdue, it must not replicate the mistakes of other jurisdictions such as the UK, where the vast majority of those gay men affected were excluded from what was a highly flawed and limited process.

The issue of education equality and the need to deliver a fully LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum in all schools, regardless of ‘ethos’ will also be discussed. LGBTQ+ students exist in every classroom in the country, yet until we update a curriculum that is now a quarter-of-a-century old, those students will continue to be short-changed by a system that renders their identity invisible or worse. The need for all our state-funded schools to be proactively inclusive and affirming of LGBTQ+ youth is starkly underlined by the most recent findings of the Belong To ‘Schools Climate’ survey, where the vast majority of students report hearing homophobic/transphobic language and 76 percent of LGBTQ+ young people say they do not feel safe at school. The Pride ‘Leaders Series’ also makes a return on June 14. I will be in Government Buildings to interview Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on many of the pressing topics referred to above and discussing the importance of Ireland firmly rejecting attempts to import toxic and manufactured ‘culture wars’ that target trans people in particular but which ultimately harm our entire LGBTQ+ community.

As historic, ground-breaking referendums of recent years have so powerfully illustrated, the clear majority of Irish people favour a modern Republic rooted in progressive social values and have proven themselves to be ahead of the political curve on such topics. That progressive spirit must continue to inform the polity here, even as some other jurisdictions fall prey to a regressive backlash driven by illiberal ‘populists’ and authoritarians.

In a previous Pride ‘Leaders Series’ interview, the Taoiseach told me how the era of ‘self-regulation’ for online tech will be coming to an end. With more bad actors moving into this space since we last spoke, I will be very interested to hear how he and his government, working in concert with European partners, is delivering on this commitment to address what is widely referred to as the ‘wild west’.

As one of the oldest continuous Irish LGBTQ+ civil society organisations still in existence, we in the National LGBT Federation are acutely aware of the political foundations that underpin our Pride movement. We are therefore delighted to have our events serve as a show-case for those values and the need to continue campaigning for progressive social change and an Ireland where LGBTQ+ citizens enjoy full social, legal, cultural and political emancipation.

”Society must signal that such crimes against LGBTQ+ and other vulnerable communities will be met with the utmost condemnation...

VICTIM-CENTRED HATE OFFENCES LAW A KEY LGBTQ+ PRIORITY

 The long-awaited Hate Offences Bill was endorsed by an overwhelming margin of 110-14 votes in the Dail in recent weeks and is now subject to further debate in the Seanad on its road to enactment. Once enacted, it will finally bring Ireland into line with the rest of Europe in having specific hate crime legislation. It will also update our laws against incitement to hatred and make them fit-for-purpose for the Ireland of the 21st century.

For the LGBTQ+ community, who have witnessed a hugely disturbing spate of violent, hate-driven attacks in recent times, there is a clear demand for effective legislation as part of a wider societal response against the scourge of hate and extremism.

Research tells us that LGBTQ+ victims of hate crimes are 12 times more likely to experience acute distress when we are targeted on account of our inherent identity. Yet for far too long, Irish law has been entirely silent on that crucial distinction.

LGBTQ+ people are only too well aware that this is not an abstract or theoretical debate and why robust criminal justice measures are an essential element in sending a clear and unequivocal message that targeting people on account of who they are will not be tolerated.

It’s why, for example, the NXF and LGBT+ Ireland, among many others, support the addition of a ‘demonstration’ as well as ‘motivation’ test, to ensure that hate offences can be effectively prosecuted and do not suffer from the same widely recognised deficiencies that characterised the soon to be repealed and replaced 1989 Incitement to Hatred Act. We also welcome that the bill explicitly covers online hate, the proliferation of which is having real-world consequences.

Crucially, the bill is fully LGBTQ+ inclusive. In addition to sexual orientation, it also protects those targeted on account of their gender identity or expression. Sex characteristics have also been inserted to ensure that intersex people are covered under the new legal regime.

We do believe that key definitions in the Bill can be made more robust and agree with expert testimony presented at a recent Council of Europe Hate Crime event in Dublin, that terms such as ‘hate’ and ‘hatred’ should be more clearly defined in the legislation. However, while wishing to avoid excessive vagueness and subjective interpretations, we also do not want an overly proscriptive approach. Comprehensive training for those criminal justice practitioners tasked with enforcing the new provisions is another crucial element in ensuring that the new laws deliver for victims of criminal hate.

In attacking a person’s inherent identity, the hate crime perpetrator is not merely singling out an individual but is seeking to instil fear and anxiety in an entire community.

It’s the ultimate ‘signal’ crime. In response, society must ‘signal’ that such crimes against LGBTQ+ and other vulnerable communities will be met with the utmost condemnation.

Some will attempt to obfuscate and muddy the waters by framing the Bill as part of a wider — and largely imported — culture war agenda rather than the actual reality of ensuring that hate crime can be properly tackled.

We will also hear claims that ‘free speech’ is supposedly being threatened, as if Ireland, in legislating against extreme criminal hate speech rather than the merely offensive, is somehow departing from democratic norms when in fact nearly every single EU state prohibits incitement to hatred and violence. Far from being antidemocratic, such provisions are in fact the hallmark of a civilised society.

Legislators, in particular, must not allow themselves to be side-tracked by such false narratives that have little to do with the substantive issues at stake. This piece of legislation – a key 2023 policy priority for the LGBTQ+ community – is far too important to be in any way derailed.

It needs to be enacted as a priority.