Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, or IDAHOBIT, which rolls nicely off the tongue. I am very lucky that I can stand up as a bisexual queer Member of our national Parliament and know there will only be a few knuckle-draggers going on about it online. However, I have a really great filter and will probably not see most of it, so they are really screaming into the void. I am really lucky that I can stand up here and I am really proud to be able to do that. We have a rainbow caucus.

Ireland has led the way in terms of LGBTQ rights, whether it comes to marriage equality, gender recognition, and all of these things we really pride ourselves on. I do not think we can fool and convince ourselves that all is well in the world. Only today, there is a video flying around online of a young secondary school student getting quite viciously beaten up by a group. It is presumed it is because he is a member of the LGBT community. The facts have yet to be fully established but that is what is believed. The school is very easily identifiable online and I hope that the full force of the school's disciple system is utilised. I hope that An Garda Síochána takes this attack extremely seriously because it was really very vicious.

It is extremely upsetting to know that today in 2023 in Ireland and on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, we still have young, out, visibly queer students being beaten up for who they are. It is really upsetting. The whole point of this day is to draw attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by the LGBT community. We know only in the past year that we had the double murder, potentially motivated by homophobia, of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee. We know we still need to do more on conversion therapy, parental rights, and societal change, which is one of the really big things when we look at what happened potentially to that young boy who was beaten up.

We have to recognise the LGBT community, which is my community and that of friends and family, is under global attack. We cannot pretend it is not also happening here. This roll-back is being targeted or pushed by the far right, by media, and by an increasingly radicalised cohort hell-bent on demonising the trans community who simply want to be able to live their authentic lives and truth. It is really important on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia that, whether a person is trans, cis, straight or queer, it is up to every person to speak up against hate. The fight for equality is not over globally but it is certainly also not over in Ireland.