First In-Person Pride For Many LGBTQ+ Young People

First In-Person Pride For Many LGBTQ+ Young People

Over 800 LGBTQ+ Young People will March with Belong To and Youth Work Ireland at Dublin Pride this Saturday.

Following two years of online Pride events, due to Covid-19, LGBTQ+ youth from across the country will come together for Pride in-person this weekend for the first time since 2019.

As part of this year’s Dublin Pride, over 800 LGBTQ+ young people from across Ireland will march under the banner ‘Empowering LGBTQ+ Youth’ alongside Belong To and Youth Work Ireland. The groups will host a breakfast event in advance of the parade, creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth to come together and prepare for the event. DJ Glamo will entertain the young people and special guests will visit throughout the event to show their allyship and solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.

The youth contingent will be led by the first-ever Youth Grand Marshall, 17-year-old Polina Stasevskaya (she/her), a young queer woman from the Ukraine who relocated to Ireland in March.

Speaking in advance of Dublin Pride, Moninne Griffith (she/her), CEO of Belong To says:

“For many LGBTQ+ young people who come out during the pandemic, this will be the first time they will attend a community event and there is mixed feelings about this. Naturally there is great excitement and joy. However, following the tragic events in Sligo earlier this year and high-profile violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community, some young people feel nervous for their safety. These events are an upsetting reminder of how much we have to do to create equality and a safe country for LGBTQ+ individuals.

With Youth Work Ireland, we will host over 800 LGBTQ+ young people and their youth workers for a pre-parade breakfast event and create a truly magical safe space for LGBTQ+ young people. Following Pride, we will return to our work as we aim to extend this magical space beyond one day in June.”   

Dr Patrick Burke, (he/him) CEO of Youth Work Ireland, said: “Youth Work Ireland’s Member Youth Services’ LGBTQ+ youth groups will congregate tomorrow in our National Office along with our friends from Belong To to celebrate Pride. This is a hugely special day in our calendar and a moment of great joy, liberation, and pride for the young people we work with. Each year Pride give us an opportunity as a society to celebrate how far we have come in terms of inclusion, but it also provides us with a moment to reflect on the road we have yet to travel. We call on all those who walk in the Pride parade, especially our political leaders and policy-makers, to make sure that every step they take will remind them of their obligations to do more in terms of fully implementing the LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• A panel of LGBTQ+ young people, CEO of Belong To, Moninne Griffith, and CEO of Youth Work Ireland, Dr Patrick Burke, are available for interview. To arrange an interview, please contact:

• • Sinead Keane, Belong To | 087 768 0389 or sinead@belongto.org
  • Gina Halpin, Youth Work Ireland |087 682 8045 or ghalpin@youthworkireland.ie
• Belong To is a national organisation supporting LGBTQ+ young people. Since 2003, Belong To has worked with LGBTQ+ young people to create a world where they are equal, safe, and valued in the diversity of their identities and experiences. The organisation advocates and campaigns on behalf of young LGBTQ+ people and offers a specialised LGBTQ+ youth service including information, support, crisis counselling in partnership with Pieta House and the provision of LGBTQ+ youth groups across Ireland. belongto.org
• Youth Work Irelandis a youth led and rights-based organisation committed to equality and inclusion for all young people. Our 20 Member Youth Services deliver a wide range of innovative services, supports and programmes to over 76,000 young people each week. These include mental health supports, resilience building, anxiety programmes, drug/alcohol supports, LGBTI+ youth work, club development, employability programmes, counselling services, music programmes, rural outreach and fun safe spaces for young people to gather. Through dedicated and ally groups our services provide young LGBTI+ people with safe, inclusive and welcoming spaces where they can hang out with their peers, relax, talk, listen to music and be themselves. All our programmes are supported by trained and professional youth work practitioners who support young LGBTI+ people in their journey to become their true authentic self. youthworkireland.ie