As Dublin celebrates with the annual Pride Parade, the Social Democrats today call on the government to show much greater urgency in driving reforms to improve the human rights of LGBTI people in Ireland.
The party’s co-leaders Róisín Shortall TD and Catherine Murphy TD said it was disappointing, 25 years after homosexuality was decriminalised, that the pace of advances on equality issues has slowed, despite clear evidence that it needs to be accelerated.
Both TDs are taking part in today’s Dublin parade along with SocDems representatives, candidates, members and supporters from around the country.
Deputy Shortall said:
“There has been enormous positive change for LGBTI people and their families in Ireland over the last number of years. But the pace of change is disappointing. Ireland still has a long way to go to ensure that the reality of being an LGBTI person is positive and valued.
“Ireland still ranks just 15th in Europe out of 49 countries for LGBTI rights, with a score of just 52% on the recently published 2018 ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map. This score is the same as last year, which shows that the pace of reform here has come to a standstill while other countries leap frog over us.”
Deputy Murphy added:
“Plans and strategies have no impact on the lives of LGBTI people without the political and institutional will to bring about real changes. Since Marriage Equality, the urgency has gone out of the reform agenda here at a time when our country should be leading from the front on LGBTI equality – not just at home, but across the world.”
“We need to see a cradle-to-grave approach, starting at birth with children and their LGBTI families acknowledged and catered for, and carrying on through our health and education systems and our workplaces right through to older age when the needs of LGBTI are often neglected.”
ENDS
30 June 2018