Students from around the country will flock to Dublin today to don rainbow flags and glitter in celebration of Ireland’s 35th Pride.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) alongside Q Soc, invited students from all colleges for a breakfast in House Six from 10am this morning.
In an email statement to The University Times, TCDSU President Shane De Rís said: “TCDSU has been at the forefront of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights for decades, this year we continue in our campaigns to end discrimination and we will be furthering the fight for marriage equality in Northern Ireland. We are delighted to be hosting the Pride breakfast alongside USI and QSoc, together we are stronger in our efforts to create a more tolerant society.”
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) will be forming a bloc at the pride parade and have called on students to join them at 12pm outside St Stephen’s Green.
USI President-elect Síona Cahill, speaking in an email statement to the University Times, said: “25 years on from the decriminalisation of Homosexuality, we still have so much more to do. There can be a flippancy about pride, as something that’s simply a celebration, when it’s so much more than that. It must continue to be more than that.”
Cahill said “Marriage Equality wasn’t a tick-the-box exercise for the LGBTI+ community and neither was the improvements to gender recognition. You don’t have to look far to see the lack of LGBTI+ inclusive curriculum in our schools, the barriers to PrEP, the utter lack of trans healthcare, and the stigma and shame that still exists in our school yards and often workplaces when it comes to being who you are”.
“We will continue to march for the rights we don’t have, for visibility, and in particular for our Northern Irish friends and family who are in a much worse position and need action”, Cahill said.
University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU), which is not a member organisation of USI, has chosen transgender healthcare as the theme for the union’s march this year. It will march alongside the group organising next week’s transgender healthcare protest. On Facebook, the union said it would “demand adequate healthcare for our trans siblings who are being failed by the current system”.
Next week will see another march, this time focusing on the fight for improved healthcare for the transgender community in Ireland.
Just yesterday Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone launched Ireland’s first-ever strategy to improve the lives of young LGBT people in the country. The strategy has set goals to outlaw gay conversion therapy, to make sexual health education and services more inclusive and to implement anti-bullying measures to ensure the safety of the LGBT community.
