Some of the results are harrowing and do not give a positive indication of what children — your children — face daily. Most people remove themselves from the reality of homophobia and transphobia since they are not personally affected.
NORMALISATION OF HOMOPHOBIA MUST NEVER BE ACCEPTED by Martin Warde
However, it is the next generation, and that may very well include your children, that are affected. While it is easy for people to rant about and make fun of those working towards making society safer and more inclusive for the next generation, people also need to realise that it is the hard work and commitment by those same people that may be the difference between your child living happily, or being physically attacked. If we want to ensure society is safe for the next generation, we need to stamp out the hate that resides within this generation. As a gay man, I am indebted to those that fought for our acceptance, and to those that challenged
The LGBT+ community in Ireland is on edge.
They are not isolated. There are many attacks that don’t grab the media’s attention, and there are countless incidents that go unreported to gardaí. There are the attacks on identity, like the burning and removal of flags during Pride Week, or the homophobic and hateful slurs graffitied across LGBT+ bars and spaces. There are casual homophobic jokes made by people online, sometimes by comedians. All of this normalises the social “othering” of the LGBT+ community. “There’s no need for pride parades anymore, sure haven’t they all got the same right as us nowadays?” You might recognise this type of comment from the online regurgitations written by people that believe the LGBT+ community no longer need to “flaunt” their sexuality in the faces of “normal” people. You may see comments like, “I don’t care what sexuality you are, there’s no need to stick it in our faces”. You might also see comments under articles such as “PC culture gone mad”, or “straight white men are the minority nowadays” , or the jewel in the crown of free speech advocates: “I’m entitled to my opinion”. The reality of hate crime is often put aside in place of a personal opinions, lacking in the empathy and community awareness required to understand the reality of those from the LGBT+ community.
The issue facing the community today is one of negative discourse and resentment, usually held by a few social media agitators. However, the normalisation of their divisive and hateful commentary often gives rise to those online opinions being reinforced in a physical form. Discrimination and bullying exist and starts as early as school. One survey conducted by BeLonG To Youth Services and Columbia University, involving 788 students ranging from 13-20 in every county, gave a harrowing account of what LGBT+ children face today. How can we as a society accept that 73% of the students surveyed felt unsafe at school? How does it happen? Does it possibly have something to do with the fact that 70% of those students hadn’t been taught anything positive about the LGBT+ community in school? Some of the other findings showed that 77% of LGBT+ students experienced verbal harassment, 38% physical harassment and 11% were physically assaulted.
With the tragic deaths of two men in Sligo in April, both of which are being treated as murder, and possibly hate crimes, there is palpable fear in the community. Gardaí have said they are looking into a possible connection that both men may have met someone online, before being murdered in their own homes. Also this week, Evan Somers, a 23-year-old gay man, was brutally assaulted on Dame Street in Dublin. Mr Somers was beaten so badly that he suffered two fractures and a dislocation to his ankle, a fractured eye socket as well as numerous other injuries. He feels that this was a homophobic attack, and the incident brought to the forefront the conversation being had on the proposed Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he was “shocked and appalled that an assault of this nature occurred in our capital city”, and that he would discuss with Justice Minister Helen McEntee the presence of gardaí on the streets, as well as new hate crime laws. Some people reading this will be thinking, so what? It’s not as if these types of crimes happen every day, you may think. They are isolated incidents being used for fear-mongering, you may believe.
the State in the late ‘80s to eventually bring about the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the mid 1990s.
In the wake of the tragic events this week and in the memory of all of those that have been persecuted in Ireland and across the world, it is worth thinking about how actions and words may, in some part, add to the acceptance of hate towards the LGBT+ community. When the rainbow flags flying high, some people will see it as a promotion of the “gay agenda” . The rainbow flag flies high, not to promote our sexuality, but to remember the efforts of those that
carried it before us, and to remind those that come after us, that they matter, and that they deserve to exist. It is about carrying that flag for the next generation and marching in the footsteps of those that made it possible.
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