Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Senator Buttimer's comments, I also want to reference what has been happening over the past week and the incidents that have occurred during Pride month. I thought I would be standing up here during Pride month, as an out member of the LGBT community, to wish people a happy Pride and to list all of the things that we still have to do. I expected to put on my glad rags and head to the Pride march, which is a standard thing that we do as members of the community every year. I did not expect to be standing up to speak on the back of what has happened over the past week and the rhetoric that has been posted online, and in the context of our national broadcaster, RTÉ, having its partnership with Dublin Pride severed for "the recent unacceptable triggering and extremely harmful anti-trans discussions that have been given a platform on Joe Duffy's Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1", and for stoking "the flames of anti-trans rhetoric". I know that Dublin Pride, like many in our community, has spent a long time working to increase positive representation of LGBTQ+ people on TV, radio and online. Some of the events of the past week have set us back immeasurably. It is most unfortunate, particularly for the trans community.

Perhaps as an antidote to that, I might take a moment to reflect on how this week I went to the launch of Trans Equality Together, a coalition between the Trans Equality Network Ireland, TENI, BeLonG To, LGBT Ireland and a plethora of organisations and allies that have come together seeking to support the trans community and looking for equality for the community in areas such as healthcare, housing, well-being, socioeconomic status and all of the other things that need to be done beyond popping the roof on the house of marriage equality and gender recognition legislation, as Senator Buttimer put it. I do not wish to take away from the extremely significant impact that both of those pieces of legislation had, but there is still a lot more work to do for that community.

Tiernan Arnup, a member of AMACH! LGBT is on record as stating: "Trans people do not exist separately to the rest of the country. We are woven into the fabric of it." I do not want to use the word "discussion" to refer to recent events because it creates a politeness that is not deserved. The broadcast that was aired for three days running meant that our community had to listen to people saying that they were not debating the existence of trans people or their lives. They were debating their existence because they were saying that trans people do not exist in the way that they do exist. That is debating people's existence and their lives. It is unacceptable that our national broadcaster allowed that to go out on air, unfettered and, quite frankly, unchallenged. Some serious claims were made during the broadcast and really damaging characterisations were made of our community, our trans friends and trans families. It is not acceptable or good enough hat that community has to listen to that during Pride month. It is a disservice to our national public broadcasting that it was allowed on air. I want to stand up today in solidarity with our community, during this Pride month. I hope that everyone in this House will stand in solidarity with our community. As Senator Buttimer said, I ask people to join in us Dublin Pride. Members can march with whatever group that they want to march. We will all be there with our different groups. We must show extreme solidarity at this moment in time with the trans community. It is very marginalised and has been so let down by the State. It has also been let down by our national broadcaster and that is not acceptable.