Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to speak on this very important matter. When walking around Dublin this month, we can see an increase in levels of pride and visibility for our LGBTQI+ community. In the inner city over the years, we have seen some brilliant community Pride festivals happening. Notably last year, this was the case in Pearse House, in Ringsend and in Kevin Street. There is a real, "what it says on the tin" Pride in the community. Pride is a festival of inclusion and visibility, but also defiance. It marks the anniversary of when the community of Stonewall rose up against the harassment and discrimination the LGBT community was enduring.

Irish society has been continually developing into a more welcoming, open and inclusive society. Recently, however, I saw a video that went around of a young LGBTQI+ individual who was savagely beaten by other young individuals. Like everybody else, I was really shocked by this. What was more shocking about that incident for me, if this was even possible, was the age profile of the young people who inflicted this brutal attack on the individual concerned. I always see my own kids and young people generally as being much more tolerant, accepting, inclusive and progressive, so it was frightening to see the age profile of those involved. Sometimes you think that maybe we are not in as good a position as we might think we are. We cannot, therefore, take for granted the work we need to do. In the context of events such as the attack I have described, we must ensure young people are made aware that this is about encouraging inclusivity and diversity. That video, as I said, was horrific for everyone to see. Equally, the age profile of those young people who carried out the attack was scary and counter to what I believed was young people's understanding of diversity.

Irish society has been developing, though, and homosexuality was decriminalised 30 years ago this month. We are now eight years on from when Irish people voted "Yes" to equality. While Ireland continues to become more progressive and forward-looking, we are lagging in the area of LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports. Research from the Gaelic Players Association is encouraging. Some 99% of elite players would accept a teammate coming out. Other questions that arose in the research, however, in respect of players' awareness of other players who have come out, are concerning. A total of 65% of females stated they were aware of an openly gay teammate. Let us compare this to male teammates, only 10% of whom said they were aware of an openly gay teammate.

Looking at the League of Ireland as an example, we do not see any openly gay individual playing in its premier division, while there may only be one person in the first division. Clearly, then, there is an issue in men's sport. I do not know the reasons for this, but women are certainly much more open in this regard. I refer to the competitiveness of male sport, but I honestly do not know what the answer here is. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. Research provided by Sporting Pride sheds light on the harrowing experience of the LGBT community's involvement in sports. Some 75% have experienced or witnessed homophobia in sports, 49% of incidents are perpetrated by teammates and 20% of LGBTQ+ people avoid participating in sport because they are part of the LGBTQ+ community. These are shocking statistics that show the urgent need for strong and meaningful diversity and inclusion policies across sporting national governing bodies, NGBs. It is the voices of those in the LGBT community, who are most likely to experience barriers to inclusion, that should be at the forefront of developing diversity and inclusion policies.

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