Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. Fianna Fáil is very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. Back in 1993, it was then Minister for Justice, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who led the decriminalisation of homosexuality. It is hard to believe that at that time, it was still illegal. I was someone born in 1982 and throughout my secondary school years, the standard insult in primary and secondary schoolyard was to call someone gay or insult people about their sexuality. It was not until years later, in 2015, when I was out campaigning with others to have the marriage equality referendum passed that I encountered someone I had been in school with. For most people, those insults were brushed and you would tell them to go take a hike in stronger language but for some people, those words hurt hugely and well into adulthood. It was good that as a nation with those tough schoolyards in the 1980s and 1990s, we grew up a bit in 2015 and passed that all-important referendum.

I agree wholly with the point made by Deputy O'Gorman that we cannot rest on our laurels. A few years ago, we saw our Olympic hero Jack Woolley badly beaten up in a homophobic attack in the heart of Dublin city. It is the most disgusting thing to hate someone for who they are. When those attacks happen, and we have had other high-profile attacks over the years, it is very important, when the moment is right, that they come out afterwards and we call it for what it is. Sometimes these attacks are just called assaults on the street but a homophobic attack is very specific. It is an act of hatred towards someone for who they are.

I do not know who first came up with the term "Pride", but it is very appropriate because people should be proud of who they are, including their sexual orientation, their religion, their skin colour or whatever. We can be very proud of our country becoming more inclusive over the past ten to 15 years.

Other speakers referred to Hungary. I had occasion to visit Hungary last year and found it to be a very open and liberal country, yet that does not reflect the government that was voted in. Shame on Viktor Orbán and his government for how they have tried to curtail the rights and freedoms of their LGBTQ+ community in Hungary. I was only there for a matter of days, but it was a point of discussion. I do not think that is how the general population there feel.

In this day and age, there has been a great deal of enlightenment. If anyone still carries homophobic thoughts, it says a lot about who they are as a person and their character flaws that they have to project their hatred onto someone who has nothing to do with them. “Live and let live” was an old adage when we were growing up, and there is a lot to be said for that. Many people have come out in recent years, but it is really refreshing when you hear people who never had to come out because they grew up in a family home or circle of friends who embraced this from the get-go. It was not a thing. They could just date who they wanted and marry who they wanted. That is ideally where we want things to be at, but there are still people who have to come out. Counselling supports are very important because with the young people I have met in Clare Youth Service and other youth groups in the constituency, there is mental anguish for people at times and anxiety. Sometimes the eventual coming out is not as big a deal as they thought it was going to be, but they need a lot of support during that time.

More needs to be done to protect and support our sportspeople. Sport is wonderful. As a nation, we love our sports but too often there is slagging and jeering from the sidelines about all sorts of issues and personal issues on the pitch. Homophobic chants can be part of that, so, as a Government and as a society, we could do more to support gay people who are involved in sport at a very high level.

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