FACT. Did you know there are more LGBTQI+ people in Ireland than in any one constituency? That's why you can’t throw a stick or insult without hitting a puff!
At
the same time the Dáil is debating proposed changes to the sex education system
in Ireland, our elected officials need to do an equality audit of all the State’s
services.
Unless you are Senator Jim Walsh from New Ross, Senator Ronan Mullins or that you think that being gay is a “lifestyle choice”, you’ve got to accept the idea of LGBTQI+ people in your community. This means, in turn, our legislators need to address the needs of LGBTQI+ people. But before I get into that, let’s look at those statistics.
The most recent statistic we have is from the Irish Times Family Values Poll in March 2015, (before the Marriage Equality Referendum), which puts the LGBT population at 4%. This is the lowest reported statistic that exists in Ireland for LGBT people, but it is still enough to make my point.
Therefore, the population of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender people in Ireland is just over 155,000.
The population from each constituency, according to the
latest dataset from the Census office in 2016 is as follows:
Constituency
|
Population
|
Largest
|
Carlow-Kilkenny
|
151663
|
4
|
Cavan-Monaghan
|
124412
|
13
|
Clare
|
112823
|
27
|
Cork
East
|
121429
|
18
|
Cork
North-Central
|
124836
|
12
|
Cork
North-West
|
89080
|
36
|
Cork
South-Central
|
122221
|
16
|
Cork
South-West
|
85302
|
38
|
Donegal
|
150657
|
6
|
Dublin
Bay North
|
152943
|
2
|
Dublin
Bay South
|
121176
|
19
|
Dublin
Central
|
96307
|
29
|
Dublin
Fingal
|
152086
|
3
|
Dublin
Mid-West
|
117976
|
24
|
Dublin
North-West
|
96992
|
28
|
Dublin
Rathdown
|
94472
|
30
|
Dublin
South-Central
|
119469
|
22
|
Dublin
South-West
|
150495
|
7
|
Dublin
West
|
121897
|
17
|
Dún
Laoghaire
|
123546
|
14
|
Galway
East
|
93651
|
31
|
Galway
West
|
154354
|
1
|
Kerry
|
147707
|
10
|
Kildare
North
|
122774
|
15
|
Kildare
South
|
91838
|
33
|
Laois
|
92589
|
32
|
Limerick
City
|
117048
|
25
|
Limerick
County
|
83845
|
40
|
Longford-Westmeath
|
120962
|
20
|
Louth
|
150924
|
5
|
Mayo
|
120082
|
21
|
Meath
East
|
91142
|
34
|
Meath
West
|
90543
|
35
|
Offaly
|
88808
|
37
|
Roscommon
- Galway
|
85022
|
39
|
Sligo-Leitrim
|
119264
|
23
|
Tipperary
|
148706
|
9
|
Waterford
|
116176
|
26
|
Wexford
|
149722
|
8
|
Wicklow
|
146926
|
11
|
TOTAL
|
4761865
|
Back to the main message of this blog. There are lots of
laws, practices, traditions, parts of our Constitution, policies (especially in
schools) and work places that are wholly inadequate for the Ireland of the 21st
Century.
Whilst some give a nod and a wink towards current
legislation – I’m thinking of the anti-bullying policies that schools are
suppose to have and publish to show how they are protecting LGBT students (or
NOT as the case may be) – others simply don’t care, are 100 years out of date,
and, sometimes, people are not given the appropriate training and resources to
handle the problem.
One area of concern is the number of young people in
emergency accommodation. Now, thankfully at this stage, the whole country and
their cat has agreed that we are in the midst of a dreadful homeless crisis.
Woowoo for us. But the story of the late-teenager to young adult is one never spoken
of. From the foster child that has aged out of the system thrown a few bob to
fend for themselves, to the young person couch surfing between friends to the
high number of young adults forced from their family home because of their
sexuality, at the same time that we are addressing homelessness we need to
specifically address the situation of young LGBTQI+ homelessness. And no,
unfortunately I do not have any statistics for these numbers (because housing authorities
do not collate this information). Check out this interesting read from Focus Ireland explaining the problem.
This neatly segways me to my next point. It is vital that
the whole country, all schools, workplaces, local authorities, state agencies and
departments urgently carryout an equality audit of their daily activity. They
need to start collating, not just how many customers they have, but the
specifics of the situation. This will ask more questions than it answers (e.g.
if the LGBT population is 4% why is there a much lower percentage of LGBT
people accessing your service). This will highlight any discrepancies and then
highlight specific problems that need addressing. This will then help the
budget holders, officials and elected representatives to better resource these
services. Wouldn’t it be great to know how many young people from the ages of
18-25 are homeless and WHY.
That’s just not for my benefit, to help back up my blog with
statistics. You see, if we have a full picture of those that are homeless and
why, we can better address the problems and hopefully stop homelessness for
good. Two changes we know are needed is to create legislation to stop banks
evicting people and to provide emergency accommodation that is safe and
sheltered for young people (i.e. somewhere that’s neither a normal shelter or
hotel where other ADULT homeless people are housed). More knowledge will allow
us to make better decisions.
So, here’s where you come in. Can you share this blog to any
elected representative you know and urge them to have an equality audit
performed in their area of interest. It is vital that we get a full picture of where
and what the money is being spent on and if it is being done fairly and
equally. I want to live in an Ireland of Equality, do you?
Thanks
John the Captain Ryan
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