Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I grew up in a very republican household. I was taught well by my father the values of service to the community and inclusion. I see parallels with Pride and the LGBT community in our country. Our queer comrades were oppressed by means of unfair laws, church doctrine and social stigma. The first Pride march in Dublin took place in June 1983 amid a culture of violence perpetrated against vulnerable segments of Irish society and emphasised by the murders of Charles Self, John Roche and Declan Flynn in the few months prior. On 21 January 1982, Charles Self, an openly gay man, was brutally murdered at his home in south Dublin. He was found dead at the foot of the stairs having been stabbed 14 times and strangled. His murderer has never been found. John Roche was also stabbed to death in a frenzied attack Cork city because he was gay. The judge who handed down the sentence in that case said he believed John enticed the killer to take part in homosexual acts and stated, "After engaging in these acts you were likely to feel hostility and revulsion". The day after Mr. Roche's killing, Declan Flynn was killed by teenagers in Fairview Park in north Dublin, who specifically targeted him and others because of their sexuality. It was queer-bashing. Declan was not their first victim that summer; not by far. They had beaten as many as 20 men in the previous six weeks, but Declan was their first killing. In their statements presented in court in 1983, they described themselves as vigilantes and indicated that they believed they were serving justice for the good of society. Mr. Flynn's killers received suspended sentences. The ruling caused public outrage and led to one of the earliest and largest demonstrations in support of gay rights on the streets of Dublin. The Flynn family described the decision as an insult. Declan's father stated, "They walked out of court free but my son cannot walk out of Glasnevin."

It would be ten years after these murders before homosexuality in Ireland was decriminalised following Herculean efforts on the part of and led by the then Senator, David Norris, and the former commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, my friend Kieran Rose. However, the legislation introduced at the time did not expunge convictions. Research by the Irish historian Diarmuid Ferriter shows that hundreds of men were jailed for homosexual offences.

The laws to which I referred at the outset were also used to imprison our very own Oscar Wilde.

This was the background to the first Pride march in Dublin in June 1983. Society at that time was largely fearful of people it did not understand and victimised them through the use of dehumanising laws inherited from Britain. Beyond these archaic laws were families, friends, colleagues and employers who may have spewed the hateful rhetoric that terrified people into remaining quiet and closeted or suffering self-loathing at being unable to change who they were. This is precisely why Pride is both a protest and a celebration. It is a protest at the unjustness of centuries of persecution, horrific violence and hatred. It is also a jubilant celebration of how far we have home that our queer community members are free to love and marry who they wish without fear of persecution by means of laws that would render them unequal members of our society and to have the intrinsic right to live authentic lies.

Sinn Féin unequivocally condemns attacks on the LGBTQ community. We wholly reject hateful rhetoric in Ireland and overseas. We are proud to have presented early gender recognition legislation in May 2013 and to have introduced in the Thirty-fourth Dáil a Bill which would exonerate all who were convicted under Ireland's unjust anti-homosexuality laws. We urge all TDs to support Deputy Ó Snodaigh's Bill, which is currently on Second Stage. We must fight relentlessly for people's right to be respected and stand firm to ensure that the damaging discourse which has prevailed and which is rearing its ugly head across the world does not become mainstreamed in our society. We celebrate Ireland's progress towards a more accepting and compassionate society, but we must redouble our efforts to stamp out homophobia, biphobia and transphobia whenever and wherever they arise. Sinn Féin will continue to stand against those who seek to marginalise, undermine and divide people's solidarity.

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