People cannot be complacent about the threat that social media and far-right ideas pose to members of the LGBT+ community.
That is according to Cork’s Sexual Health Clinic, which is appealing to people from the LGBT+ community across Ireland to respond to a survey on their experiences of discrimination, safety concerns and online hostility, reports Breaking News.
The clinic wants to particularly hear from trans and “gender-diverse” people.
The centre’s senior health promotion officer Phil Corcoran told the Irish Examiner: “We have to be careful not to be complacent. I think a lot of people assumed that when we got marriage equality, that was everything fixed but I suppose a lot of the architecture that supported discrimination against people is still very much there,” reports Breaking News.
He said there are certain kinds of attitudes in society that still exist.
He added: “If you look at what trans people are facing worldwide, where they represent a very small percentage of the population, they are constantly facing political hostility and misinformation, reports Breaking News.
“I suppose that old trick of picking on a minority and focusing on them to distract from larger issues. I think trans people in particular are very much victims of that at the moment,” reports Breaking News.
He said they are seeing an increase in far-right attitudes worldwide and that also plays a part.
“We felt it was a good time to take the temperature of things for people and that is the reason behind taking the survey,” reports Breaking News.
Last October, two drag queens were assaulted in Cork city when they were filming a video for social media to promote a drag event.
Performers Krystal Queer and Lucina Schynning were kicked on Oliver Plunkett Street, with Krystal left bleeding after being struck by a separate man, reports Breaking News.
Corcoran also said the centre is aware of slurs being directed at members of the community.
He said the survey aims to “get a broad picture of what it is like to live as an LGBT+ person in Ireland and to explore in more detail the information we might be hearing and the discrimination people might be facing,” reports Breaking News.
“There is a lot of negativity being fed through social media and the online world and we can’t get complacent about this type of misinformation. People can get swept up on all sorts of movement online that may not have any basis on reality,” reports Breaking News.
He said the rise in hostility against members of the LGBT+ community “has been fed by a lot of actors and we just want a sense of the scale of this and how it is affecting people’s participation in society, what kinds of hostility that people are facing so that we can look at the shape of supports going forward and make sure that everyone feels they belong in Irish society,” reports Breaking News.
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