On June 19 the State ‘apologised’ for the hurt and harm the criminalisation of homosexuality caused to the LGBT+ community. Although in acknowledging that homophobic vitriol that inhabited, destroyed and took so many lives over the last century, strained to hear anyone actually say the word “sorry”.
There have been so many state ‘apologies’ to the thousands of victims of a repressive, vindictive sexual culture that punished, killed and incarcerated people because of their bodies, their desires, their gender, their sexualities – abuse victims, Magdalene sisters, mental health sufferers, women driven abroad, enforced LGBT+ emigrants, suicides. But what have these apologies truly changed? In every abusive relationship ‘sorrys’ are commonly repeated by the abuser; but never sorry enough to ensure the violence doesn’t happen again. The Taoiseach said, “we have learned as a society from their suffering”, but what is it he and we have really learned?