LABOUR STILL LEADING THE WAY ON LGBT RIGHTS – LABOUR EQUALITY
Labour Equality has described two Labour Party Bills aimed at furthering LGBT rights as ‘a further demonstration that Labour will continue to lead the way on LGBT rights in Ireland.
Chair of Labour Equality Padraig McLoughlin commented: ‘Today two Bills have been launched that if passed will help to address the continuing effects of recent and historical discrimination against LGBT people.
‘Senator Ged Nash’s Bill to apologise to and exonerate those who were convicted of sexual offences before 1993 simply for being who they are and were is something that deserves cross party support and marks the first steps in recognising the real impact that our discriminatory laws had on people’s lives until far too recently.
‘In addition, the Bill to address the situation whereby gay and lesbian couples who were not legally able to marry before a certain age can no longer be blocked from receiving normal pension rights, being introduced by Senator Ivana Bacik, is another key issue facing many in the LGBT community, who having maintained a career in the face of the attitudes prevalent in the past should not have to face a final discrimination against their families now.
‘In an era where we take it for granted that LGBT people live in a society where they are accepted and treated as equal citizens it is vital as a nation that we acknowledge those in the past who were not so lucky, and to right these wrongs which were allowed to persist for far too long.’