TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said he is worried about homophobia and transphobia.
Making remarks during a meeting with the Capital Pride Alliance in Washington DC, the group which will host World Pride in the city next year, Varadkar said there’s been an increase in violence towards the community, stating it is starting to “become acceptable again to be homophobic or transphobic”.
Varadkar, who announced he was gay in 2015, discussed Ireland’s passing of a constitutional amendment through a referendum which extended marriage equality to same-sex couples.
He also spoke about legislation allowing transgender people to assign their own gender by choice.
“But a bit like the rest of the world, there’s been a bit of a backlash to that in the last couple of years,” he said, adding:
And I worry about that.
During the meeting, Varadkar and Irish ambassador to the US Geraldine Byrne Nason also discussed Ireland’s work with South Africa on LGBT rights at the UN.
The Taoiseach also noted anti-LGBT messaging of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia.
Shua Goodwin, board member of Capital Pride Alliance, said that there has been progress on LGBT rights, there are also people “who want to hold onto the past” with transphobia and homophobia.
Goodwin said after the meeting that “there’s a way to counteract that, to say that’s not normal just because it seems to be happening more and more.”
He said homophobia and transphobia could also be countered by letting LGBT people know they will continue to be supported.
“That’s just safe for everyone because we know when the most marginalised groups are insecure and unsafe, that’s going to go across all lines of folks – no matter what their religious belief, race, sexual orientation.
“I think him really focusing on that has that’s why him raising that was fantastic.”
Goodwin said the group invited Varadkar because he, and the country of Ireland, had “done such a fantastic job” on human rights internationally.
Earlier in the day, Varadkar spoke at an event with president of the US Chamber of Commerce Suzanne Clark.
Speaking to business leaders in an event in Washington, not far from the White House, Varadkar said the “coalition is very strong”, adding that the current government is the “most solid coalition” he’s ever been part of.
“I have had the privilege to serve in three coalition’s now, one a minority coalition involving my party and independents and then two other coalitions which we were the majority party in the coalition, so of all three, this is the one that I think is the most solid of them in many ways,” he said.
Varadkar said he meets with Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan at leader level every Monday evening, stating that “generally” they are able to sort any disputes.
“Or at the very least, carry them over to the next Monday,” he joked, stating that they tend to resolve such matters eventually.
His comments come after he told reporters that there would not be a general election “any time soon”.
The next elections will be the local and European elections and Limerick Mayor election on 7 June.
Speaking at the Varadkar said that immigration has “increasingly” become a “top-tier issue” in Irish politics, stating that it hasn’t been a high-profile issue before.
“In terms of the public’s concerns, certainly the cost-of-living crisis is a big issue here as well, the housing shortage, concerns around law and order, increasingly migration is a big part of our politics, hadn’t been previously. Now it’s definitely a top-tier issue or a top-three issue,” he said.
“So they’re the things that are on people’s minds and of course, therefore they’re on politicians’ minds.”
He said most of the problems Ireland faces are part of “bigger global megatrends”, such as Brexit, the pandemic, energy crisis, inflation and migration.
“These are actually not problems that were created in Ireland or can be solved in Ireland alone,” he said.
“They’re part of bigger things that are happening in the world and we have to understand that a lot of the solutions to the problems that we see in our day-to-day lives in Ireland, or here in America, require multilateral solutions and require global solutions, and it can be hard to explain that sometimes,” Varadkar added.
Migration is a now a “huge issue” in politics, adding that there isn’t a particular thing that Ireland can do or America can do at home to resolve some of the issues being raised.
“Because so much of it is driven by global challenges, whether it’s climate, whether it’s war, whether it’s a lack of economic opportunity and freedom for huge numbers of people in the world. It’s that that pushes migration, huge numbers, not necessarily things that we do,” he said.
With reporting by Press Association
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