by Sarah McKenna Barry

The LGBT+ Public Figure Award was decided by public vote.

Award Recipient

Katherine Zappone began her political career as a member of the 24th Seanad in 2011. Here, she sat on the Committee of Justice, Defence and Equality. Zappone made history in 2016 when she was elected to the Daíl to represent the Dublin South-West constituency, which made her the first openly lesbian member of the Irish Cabinet. Since then - and indeed throughout her entire political career - Zappone oversaw a massive shift in Ireland’s cultural landscape as we became a nation that fought for the rights of LGBT+ people. In this regard, Zappone’s contribution cannot be understated.

In 2004 - long before Ireland’s landmark Marriage Equality referendum - Zappone and her late wife, Dr Ann Louise Gilligan, drew a huge amount of public attention to LGBT+ equality when they took a case to the High Court to have their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland for tax filing purposes. Though they were initially unsuccessful, the case was significant as it gave huge momentum to the LGBT+ civil rights movement in the country. Many saw the Zappone V Revenue Commissioners case as a turning point for equality, paving the way for the Civil Partnership Act, and later, full marriage equality in 2015. Zappone and Gilligan wrote Our Lives Out Loud: In Pursuit of Justice and Equality, which documents their experience throughout the case.