Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party Senators for bringing this important Bill to the House.

I fundamentally support the measures contained in this Bill to undo some of the damage historically inflicted by the State on the LGBTQI+ community. While an apology and exoneration will do little for the men prosecuted under the relevant Acts, it would be an important step for us to recognise the indefensibility of those prosecutions and attempt to rectify the damage that was done by the State to gay men and those close to them in the past. It seems surreal at a time of such increasing acceptance of the LGBTQI+ community in this country that it was only in 1993 that homosexual acts were decriminalised in Ireland with the passage of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 1993, which passed Final Stages in this House only 24 years ago in June.

It is a sad reality that, historically, Ireland's record on LGBTQI+ equality has been a noticeable stain on our record of commitment to human rights. However, in what is surely one of the most welcome political developments of recent years, we have seen a reversal of this trend and increased recognition of the civil equality of our LGBTQI+ citizens. This is evidenced by the major legislative initiatives in recent years, such as legislation on civil partnership in 2010, the passage of the historic Gender Recognition Bill in 2015 and that incredible day for politics in this country two years ago when Ireland became the first country in the world to enshrine civil marriage rights for same-sex couples in its Constitution by popular vote.

Of course, I am not the first person in this House to pay tribute to that day in May. I often hear my colleagues in both Houses of the Oireachtas paying tribute to what happened on that day and the positive and progressive shift that it showed, hailing it as a landmark day for Irish politics and the true achievement of equality for our LGBTQI+ citizens. While in many ways I share that sentiment and I fully recognise what a special day that was for many people, I often feel that, because there is such a strong perception that equality was secured for LGBTQI+ people with the marriage referendum, the urgency of the fight for LGBTQI+ advancement and our ongoing commitment to always be looking for avenues to improve the lives of LGBTQI+ citizens has dissipated somewhat.

It is easy to look at the referendum result and think that civil marriage rights for LGBTQI+ people was the apex of the fight for equality for a long marginalised community. It is much harder to view the result of that referendum as simply a significant marker in a much longer process, that while increasing civil equality is important, it is by no means the only way we can measure the true equality of LGBTQI+ people in the State. If we start to expand the markers by which we measure that equality, we can start to see just how much more work needs to be done to help our LGBTQI+ citizens. For example, our transgender citizens under the age of 18 and those who identify as gender non-binary are still not adequately accommodated for under the Gender Recognition Act 2015. This needs to be changed and I call on the Government to consider such changes as we approach the Act's review period.

Another issue is that while I welcome the recent decision by the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to lift the lifetime ban of MSM blood donation, I have to ask why he has decided to maintain a one-year deferral period when, as far as I can tell, there is no scientific evidence to justify such a deferral and, indeed, many European countries do not have one in place. The continued existence of such a ban is discriminatory and stigmatising and will in practice exclude many MSM who wish to donate blood.

I would like to applaud the Government of Malta for being the first European country to ban gay conversion therapy last month. It would be a significant statement of Ireland's commitment to LGBT equality if the Oireachtas were to consider enacting a similar ban.

Another issue relates to the worrying statistics relating to LGBT homelessness, mental health, LGBT+ sex education and suicide. Last year a paper entitled Swimming with Sharks, was published by the University of Queensland. It documents the very detrimental and damaging impact that the "No" campaign during the marriage referendum had on the mental health and well-being of those in the Irish LGBT community. In light of this and the concern and statistics, we should be considerate and target national efforts to deal with these problems.

Another worrying statistic is the recent increasing levels of HIV prevalence among MSM, with 377 new cases in 2014, and the rise of trends such as chemsex. As a result, we should be debating how to expand the availability of and information relating to the preventive drug PrEP and improving LGBT+ specific sexual education in schools.

I was also recently contacted by a retired Trinity College lecturer whose same-sex partner's pension entitlements where denied as the lecturer had not been married by the age of 60, despite the fact that civil partnerships were not even legal before he turned 60. I understand that this extraordinarily unfair administrative anomaly will be dealt with by Senator Bacik's recently introduced Pensions (Equal Pension Treatment in Occupational Benefit Scheme) (Amendment) Bill 2016 which is welcome.

I do not raise these issues to paint a negative picture of how the State treats LBGT+ people. I simply want to raise the point that when we are considering how we can make amends to LGBT+ citizens who were wronged by the State in the past, as this worthy Bill does, we should also take the opportunity to consider how we can best support Irish LGBT+ people in the here and now, and in the future. All of the challenges that faced the LGBT+ community in this country were not solved on 22 May 2015. All the challenges that face that same community today will not be solved by the passage of this legislation. However, they represent significant markers in a process that, if coupled with concerted efforts and attitude changes across a range of policy areas, small and large, will strengthen the equality of our LGBT+ citizens in the future. I am proud to support the Bill.