Ms Arianna Gallagher:

As young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, we are often dismissed by adults who say that we are only children and that we do not yet know what we are. No one knows oneself better than oneself. When we are disregarded and told that we cannot be this or that and that we must wait until we are older it can be very damaging to our mental health. Even sometimes when we go to counselling services, for example, we may be told the same thing by adults who are supposed to be trained in these fields. When we go to places such as BeLonG To, however - which has been of extreme benefit not only to myself but to hundreds of people who identify as LGBTI across the country - we are asked what name and pronouns we prefer and we are respected as equals. There is no sense of them being adults and us being children. We are respected. People are referred to and spoken about as they wish to be and they are not judged for it. We are surrounded by people who are in similar situations to ourselves and adults who have gone through similar situations and who respect us just as much.

The different BeLonG To groups such as BeLonG To Sunday, BeLonG To IndividualiTy and BeLonG To Ladybirds help different groups within the LGBT community. The partnership which BeLonG To has with services such as Pieta House has also been of extreme benefit to the mental health of young LGBTQ people. They know they have a place to which they can go where, if they share their problems from home or school whether about bullying or about something else, they will be respected and listened to and will not be turned away like they might be from other counselling services. BeLonG To has seriously improved my mental health and I know for sure that it has helped the lives and improved the moods of hundreds of LGBT people across the country. The number of teenagers walking at the front of the parade during the recent Pride festival just goes to show how proud we have become because we have something like BeLonG To, which teaches us that we can be proud to be who we are, that we should not be afraid to be who we are and that we should just be who we are without being afraid.

Without BeLong To, the mental health of the young LGBTQ population across the country would be a lot worse than it is at the moment because some of us live in areas where, let us say, it is still not accepted, or we go to schools where we would still get bullied over it. We need BeLong To not only here in Dublin and in other counties but across the country. Every single county should have its own service like BeLong To in order that those who live in remoter areas do not have to travel far to be who they are. There should be a right to be who you are and to be respected for who you are.