Statement In Response To Exclusion Of LGBTI+ Groups From The World Meeting Of Families

Statement In Response To Exclusion Of LGBTI+ Groups From The World Meeting Of Families

For Immediate Release:

14/08/2018

Moninne Griffith, Executive Director of BeLonG To Youth Services, the national organisation for LGBTI+ young people, commented on the news that LGBTI+ groups have been denied permission to join World Meeting of Families exhibition hall:

“We are disappointed and saddened at the decision to exclude LGBTI+ groups from the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Dublin. This deliberate decision to exclude ‘The Global Network of Rainbow Catholics’ and ‘We Are Church Ireland’ is hurtful for LGBTI+ people who are Roman Catholic, those whose families are Roman Catholic, and those who attend Roman Catholic schools.

Exclusion and lack of acceptance can have a devastating impact on the lives of LGBTI+ young people resulting in increased levels of self-harm and suicide, as highlighted by recent Irish research¹. As a country, Ireland voted for inclusion, acceptance and equality for same-sex couples in 2015. We call on the World Meeting of Families to model the same inclusion, and welcome the LGBTI+ community and families in a real and meaningful way.”

For more information, please contact contact Sinead Keane, BeLonG To Youth Services: 087 768 0389 or sinead@belongto.org

NOTE TO EDITORS

• BeLonG To Youth Services is the national organisation supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) young people in Ireland.

¹ The LGBTIreland Report, published in 2016 found that:

1. 56% of LGBTI who were aged 14 to 18 years had self-harmed, 70% had suicidal thoughts and one in three had attempted suicide.

In summary, compared to the wider population of young people in Ireland, LGBTI young people had:

• Two times the level of self-harm.
• Three times the level of attempted suicide.
• Four times the level of severe or extremely severe stress, anxiety and depression.