Gilmore encourages gay community to stand in elections

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore has urged more lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people to stand for elections.

Speaking at the launch of Dublin Pride, the annual festival that celebrates LGBT life in Ireland, Mr Gilmore said the root of pervasive, and often poisonous, discrimination against gay and lesbian people was a failure to recognise the equality of all of citizens.

“To deny equality is to look another in the eye and proclaim them to be a lesser person. It is to distinguish between the quality of one person’s humanity over another,” he said. “No citizen – whatever their sexuality, their gender, their beliefs or the colour of their skin – should have to live in such a society.”

While the Dublin Pride festival was a testament to how far the country had come since homosexuality was decriminalised in 1993, Mr Gilmore said there was still a major distance to travel.

As an example, he cited a recent survey of LGBT people which found 80% of respondents had been verbally abused because of their sexuality; 40% had been threatened physically; and 25% had been kicked, punched or beaten.

Some of the worst bullying happened in schools, Mr Gilmore added, saying it was little surprise considering statistics that LGBT people were significantly more likely to experience depression and consider suicide.

“Twenty years after the words ‘sexual orientation’ first appeared on the statute book in incitement to hatred legislation, the persistence of homophobic bullying among young people is a telling reminder that it takes more than equal status legislation to change attitudes,” he said.

“Indeed, a recent poll of the LGBT community found equality – still – to be the single most important issue for gay people: equality at work; equality of treatment; equal marriage rights.”

He urged more members of the LGBT community to stand for office in a bid to achieve these aims.

“We need more openly gay people to stand for – and win – elections.”

Dublin Pride runs from today until June 28. The centrepiece of the festival – the parade through Dublin city centre – takes place on Saturday week, June 27.

The festival has adopted “Pride & Prejudice?” as its theme for this year. According to the organisers, the theme will “celebrate the literary gay icons throughout history while encouraging the nation to question their own perspectives on the gay community.”