Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equality

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Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equality

• Issues for the PSEU
• Davin Roche
• GLEN
• November 2008

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PSEU Action Areas
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LGB Equality Issues

• 6 of the population or 255,000 are LGB
• The average age people realise their orientation
  is 12. The average age of disclosing ones
  orientation to someone else until 21

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Civil Partnership Heads of Bill 2008
Taxation
Inheritance
x
Children
Migration

• CIVIL PARTNERSHIP

Social Welfare
Status
Pensions
Creation and dissolution
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Sexual Orientation as a Social Inclusion Issue
Safety Visibility

• The average age people realise their orientation
  is 12. The average age of disclosing ones
  orientation to someone else until 21.
• 50 of LGB youth had been bullied in school in
  the previous 3 months (compared to 16 of the
  general youth population) (Minton et al., 2006)
• Eight percent left school earlier than
  anticipated as a result

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Equality Issues relating to sexual orientation
Bias Anti-gay bias Homophobia
Invisibility Silence
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Safety Visibility

• 25 physically abused (LGBT Lives, forthcoming)
• 80 verbally abused, 40 6 times or more
• Pressure to hide your orientation

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Isolation

• Experiences of isolation in Galway, Mayo and
  Roscommon (LGBT West Forthcoming)

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Mental Health LGBT Lives

• Risk, resilience and minority stress
• 66 depressed within the last year
• 40 within the last 30 days
• 25 had self harmed at least once in their lives
  with the vast majority of these self harming on
  more than one occasion.
• 40 of women had self-harmed.
• The average age of onset of self harm was 15.87
  years.

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Mental Health LGBT Lives
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Drug Use
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Other Social Inclusion Issues

• Family support and homelessness
• Older people
• People with disabilities
• Ethnic minorities
• Class

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Tolerance
Hostility
Embarrassment
Pity
Irrelevant
Fear
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PSEU Action Areas

• Education and training
• Health, Policing
• Civil Partnership
• Community Supports
• Enterprise
• Health and Safety
• Etc Etc Etc

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Workplace

• Disclosure of LGBT status
• Are you out toNone, Some or All of your work
  colleagues

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Supportive Workplaces

• The views of immediate colleagues
• Open and friendly company culture
• Clarity of messages and policies around joking,
  intimidation or harassment
• Management commitment
• knowing there are other accepted LGB colleagues

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Redress

• Less than 1 of Equality cases taken in 2006 were
  under the sexual orientation ground
• Outing oneself by taking a case
• Size of the community

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PSEU Action Areas

• Civil Partnership
• National Anti-Poverty Social Inclusion Plan
• Equality Authority
• Employment Equality Act Section 37
• EU Equality Directive
• Solidarity LGB people in more repressive countries

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References

• Enabling LGB Individuals to Access their Rights
  under Equality Law, Equality Authority and
  Equality Commission for Northern Ireland 2007
• www.glen.ie
• ICTU Negotiators Guide www.ictu.ie/download/pdf/ga
  y_lesbian_leaflet.pdf
• UNISON LGBT www.unison.org.uk/out/