This month Ireland will cross yet another milestone when it becomes the first country in the world to publish a government strategy aimed at LGBTI+ youth. It’s the brainchild of Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, who always envisaged the need for such a strategy but didn’t know that it would eventually fall under her remit and that she would be the one implementing it – a fact she is immensely proud of.
Photo by Babs Daly
To chair the strategy committee she appointed Irish Times journalist Una Mullally, who guided the process of bringing the whole thing to life. Speaking at the time of her appointment Mullally said she hoped to bring her “experience and work as an LGBT rights activist and advocate,” adding that the strategy would be “guided by the experts in this field, and, most importantly, LGBT young people themselves”.
With that in mind the strategy has emerged following an intense almost two-year period of consultation which placed the voices of young people at its core. According to Zappone, “We knew that it was important to offer an opportunity for their voices to surface”. In all, over 4,000 young people from across the country contributed their voices to the strategy, which will have a lifespan of three years and involve the cooperation of various governmental departments in order to achieve its objectives.
Results from the consultation process with these young people showed that a fifth of them continued to face harassment and discrimination in their schools and jobs. Concerns around non-inclusive sex education were also raised as were trans concerns around gender-neutral bathrooms and school uniform policies. However, the surveys also showed that things were getting markedly better, especially since the passing of the marriage equality referendum.