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”.