13/05/2024
In a world grown increasingly intolerant and threatening, the importance of marking IDAHOBIT is essential. The Cork LGBTI+ Awareness Week 2024 theme is ‘A Safe City for All’ which will be explored at various events throughout the week. This theme is a call for unity, only through solidarity for each other will we create a world without injustice, where no one is left behind.
The theme was chosen in the shadow of the attacks that have been made on people and organisations in the last year. Libraries, migrant accommodation, and other public buildings have been subjected to pickets, protests, damage to books and materials, and personalised attacks on staff.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy will officially launch the week on Monday the 13th in City Hall. The Lord Mayor acknowledges the work done by the LGBTI+ InterAgency Group as essential to building a safe city for all. Reflecting on the City’s motto Statio Bene Fide Carinis he said: “Cork aspires to be a safe harbour for all. Everyone should be safe to live fully as themselves, no matter who we are, where we come from, who we love or how we look.”
Councillor John Maher, deputising for the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy welcomed The Cork LGBTI+ InterAgency Group to City Hall last week. The Group assembled in the bright sunshine at the Rainbow Balustrade, outside City Hall.
Cllr Maher especially thanked the InterAgency Group for their work in creating a more inclusive city, “You have made it alright for people to acknowledge who they are in public. In an earlier time, we would have hidden that aspect of ourselves”, he said.
Keynote speaker at the launch will be Roderic O’Gorman TD, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth. Minister O’Gorman, said: “It is by standing together, by supporting each other, by building safe structures in our society, that we enable each other to carry on as our best selves.”
There is a range of free events running throughout the week. We invite you to attend an event, come together to challenge homophobia, lesbophobia, transphobia, and biphobia and to demonstrate the solidarity of the people of Cork with LGBTI+ communities, here and globally.
Some highlights include:
Most of the week’s events are open to the public. Full details of all events are available at www.corkcity.ie/lgbti and on our social @CorkLGBTWeek.
The InterAgency Group is made up of members representing state, community, and LGBTI+ organisations, with the aim of increasing awareness of LGBTI+ issues within our own provision, and across society at large.
Members include representatives from the public realm: Cork City Council, Cork City Library, Cork Education and Training Board, HSE, TÚSLA Child and Family Agency, An Garda Síochána, Naval Service, Defence Forces; from the Community sector: CESCA, Sexual Health Centre, Cork City Partnership; and from LGBTI+ organisations: LINC, Gay Project, Gender Rebels.
