shOUT! stuff
LGBT Youth Forum with President Mary McAleese
In October 2008, President Mary McAleese spoke to a forum of LGBT youth from all over Ireland, at NUIG. The transcript of her speech that afternoon is here on the BelongTo website, and in it she called for an end to all homophobic bullying, and to confront those who make anti-gay remarks. The photos in the Irish Times article about the forum featured three members of shOUT! all dressed up for the occasion.
Here’s a quote from the President’s speech that day:
The job that you are doing is about the business of creating a better world. An open world, a world free of homophobic bullying and bias. A world where people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, at whatever time of their lives they discover that about themselves that they can feel, ‘So what? So what? That’s the world. I live in a world where that’s everyday. Where nobody passes a remark on it. Nobody comments. This is how life is.’ I feel very strongly that what you are doing is such an important step by step by step growth, helping not just yourselves but actually at a much bigger level, helping all of us as community, as society, as Mums, dads, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, colleagues to one another to be a loving caring community. You’re helping us to grow and to go that journey.
So, thank you for your courage and thank you for going that journey and thank you in particular for growing that journey. Go raibh mile maith agat.
