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AN IRISH LGBTQ+ group in New York is calling on Irish politicians in the US on St Patrick’s Day to stand up for members of the Irish and Irish-American LGBTQ+ community who are being harmed or put at risk by Trump policies.
The Lavender and Green Alliance says the Trump administration is trying “to scapegoat and render invisible” transgender people and that political and religious leaders visiting the US from Ireland for St Patrick’s Day should “speak up in support” of the community.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has defended the Irish government’s record on transgender rights, saying that “human dignity and respect” should be given to everyone.
Since his return to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has issued executive orders and made statements that campaigners have said amount to attacks on America’s LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people.
His targeting of trans people has included ordering federal agencies to remove any statements that “promote gender ideology”, which in practice has led to facts and photographs being erased from archives and other sources of information.
The Lavender and Green Alliance is a group of Irish people in the LGBTQ+ community in New York.
Ahead of St Patrick’s Day celebrations on Monday, founder Brendan Fay said the group “will be visible on the avenues of New York City during the upcoming St Patrick’s parades in greater numbers than ever” as it pushes back against anti-trans rhetoric.
“We welcome friends to join us in support and solidarity. At a time of anxiety for our LGBT immigrants, we are asking visiting political and religious leaders from Ireland to speak up in support,” Fay said.
Tánaiste Simon Harris is expected to be in New York on St Patrick’s Day to represent the government.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has been in Texas and Washington DC this week in the lead-up to St Patrick’s Day. His itinerary included a high-profile meeting with Trump in the White House on Wednesday and a gala dinner yesterday evening, where family members of Enoch Burke were removed by security after shouting and disrupting speeches.
Enoch Burke has spent over 500 days in prison for repeatedly violating court orders to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath. He is on suspension from his role as a teacher after the school alleged that he interrupted a church service and followed the principal around to loudly complain about a request to refer to a trans student with the pronoun “they”.
The Journal’s political correspondent Jane Matthews in DC asked the Taoiseach today for a response to the call from the Lavender and Green Alliance for Irish politicians in the US to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.
“I think Irish government has been very strong on this. The Irish government have been very clear on this,” Martin said.
“I’ve been very clear with respect to the rights of transgender people, and consistently, in the Dáil and elsewhere, I’ve been very consistent about it,” he said.
“Thankfully, in Ireland we’ve avoided, I think, the type of abuse and the ‘culture wars’ that have happened elsewhere, and that would be my aim and hope, that people would always approach these issues with human dignity and respect at the core.”
A study published by the Pew Research Centre found that 78% of LGBTQ+ adults in the US expect the Trump administration’s policies to have a negative impact on trans people and 71% expect a negative impact on gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
One of Trump’s first executive orders upon returning to the White House was to impose strict definitions of what his administration says it means to be a man or woman and order all federal agencies and employees to use those definitions.
He ordered agencies to “remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology”.
This has led to erasures of references to transgender people in the US, including on the official website for the Stonewall National Monument, which marks a site in New York City where the fight for civil rights for LGBTQ+ people gained momentum.
Fay of the Lavender and Green Alliance has outlined that a “transformation is happening in the heart of America” with “the dismantling of institutional programs in schools, workplaces and communities supporting ‘diversity, equity, inclusion’”.
“These undermine support for women, people of color and LGBT persons,” Fay said.
“The Trump administration by executive order and policy seeks to scapegoat and render invisible those in our community who are transgender. While the ‘T’ has been removed for now, you cannot undo the facts of LGBTQ history,” he said.
Fay said that transgender activists in New York like Marsha P. Johnson, who is known for playing a pivotal role in the Stonewall movement, were supporters of Irish LGBTQ+ immigrants when the the group was not able to officially march in St Patrick’s Day parades.
The Alliance said in a statement that Irish LGBTQ+ people “know the pain of inhospitality and exclusion”.
“As the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and other political leaders exchange the shamrock, mutual pleasantries and urgent conversations regarding trade and economic relations, we are calling on our representatives to speak for those in the Irish diaspora who are caught in that in-between place of ‘neither here nor there’.”
For many years, LGBTQ+ organisations were not allowed to march in the official New York St Patrick’s Day parade.
It was only in 2015 that an LGBTQ+ group was allowed to join the parade. The Lavender and Green Alliance became the second openly gay group to do so in 2016.
Earlier this month, Irish and Irish Americans marched in the St Pat’s for All Parade in Queens, which was set up when LGBTQ+ groups were excluded from the official parade in Manhattan. Lord Mayor of Belfast Micky Murray, Belfast’s first openly gay Lord Mayor, was the Grand Marshal of the St Pat’s for All Parade this year.
Additional reporting by political correspondent Jane Matthews covering Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s visit in Washington DC
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