NXF — The Board — 2026
Time for change
The National LGBTQ+ Federation (NXF), publishers of GCN, are pleased to have the opportunity to once again update readers on recent developments in the advocacy and policy space.
By Adam Long, NXF Board Director
I represented the NXF at the inaugural meeting of the second National LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Strategy, which was chaired by the Minister for Equality and brought together LGBTQ+ community organisations and key officials from various government departments.
The stated objective of the Strategy is to foster a safe, fair, and inclusive society for the community; a society in which LGBTQ+ people can live healthy, and fulfilling lives.
The NLIS II and its associated action plans will seek to directly confront the continuing challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people today through actions across four key Pillars – Safety, Health and Wellbeing, Participation and Inclusion, and Equality and Non-Discrimination. The actions through which the Strategy will be implemented reflect the determination of government and state agencies to work together to that end.
The NXF very much welcomes the opportunity to proactively engage with the Strategy and help ensure the commitments contained within it are fully realised. Along with our colleagues in the sector, we are clear that the Strategy cannot be aspirational in nature and must produce clear deliverables, not least when it comes to providing robust protections for our LGBTQ+ community against the scourge of hate, so much of which is being amplified online and having increasingly serious real world consequences.
The long awaited enactment of Hate Crime legislation, one of the leading policy priorities of the LGBTQ+ community for many years, represents an important step in the right direction but in addition to real and effective enforcement of the new laws, we also need to see the modernising of the state’s approach towards incitement to hatred, particularly to take account of the online space. It is not just the NXF or the LGBTQ+ community who understand the need to make incitement legislation fit-for-purpose in addressing modern realities – so too does the wider Coalition Against Hate Crime, comprising over 20 civil society organisations advocating for the very communities targeted by hate.
We are also clear that the safety of LGBTQ+ people and other vulnerable groups must be prioritised over any other considerations in current discourse around the regulation of Big Tech. This is especially relevant in an Irish context as so many of these platforms base their European operations here. We must certainly stand firm in the face of bombastic threats from the Trump administration against Europe for enforcing the likes of the Digital Services Act, which seeks to ensure that Big Tech adheres to EU laws and standards around online safety if they wish to operate in the single European market. These large platforms have entered into a cynical alliance with Trump, with the companies hoping that the US President’s threats of retribution against online regulation will shield them from long overdue accountability for online harms. From a frustrating lack of enforcement and regulation that was evident for some time, the NXF is encouraged by what appears to be a more muscular approach now emerging, and a recognition that what is illegal offline is also illegal online and must be treated as such. We know too that despite much ‘culture war’ driven noise in this sphere, the vast majority of Irish people support a tougher approach, with a recent opinion survey showing a clear majority in favour of a ban on platforms operating in Ireland who refuse to adhere to our laws and regulations. It is hoped such findings will help focus the minds of political leaders and ensure that the wild-west nature of the online world is finally brought to an end.
Another key policy priority for the NXF is the enactment of a fully LGBTQ+ inclusive prohibition against so-called ‘conversion therapy’. Indeed, such a commitment is contained in both the current and previous Programme for Government, in addition to the aforementioned National LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Strategy.
We were very heartened by a vote at the Council of Europe in mid-February to overwhelmingly endorse a proposal calling for a comprehensive ban absent of any loopholes that would enable this so-called ‘therapy’ to continue in practice. The vote by the world’s largest human rights body provides further momentum to efforts here in Ireland to secure a legislative ban and it is an issue that the NXF and fellow members of the Platform to Ban Conversion Practices will be prioritising in 2026.
Finally, we were very pleased to see the government offering a definitive timeline for the enactment of a disregard scheme for those, mostly gay men, who were subject to criminal convictions before the colonial era homophobic laws were finally repealed in Ireland in 1993. It is expected that the scheme will commence this month, and is the second crucial element to a restorative justice process that began with an official state apology to the LGBTQ+ community delivered in 2018.