Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 20:26:13 +0100 (NFT) From: Bj|rn Skolander Subject: Ireland - Legal Changes ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 16:06:42 WET From: DR. LUBE After recently returning from Ireland, I felt obliged to inform all subscribers the liberisation of laws and attitudes concerning gays and lesbians in Ireland. In 1989 we had the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act making it illegal to incite hatred against lesbians and gay men. In June 1993, we had decriminalisation, repealing the law forbidding homosexual acts between adult men. It also gave us a common age of consent at 17. October 1993 saw the Employment Discrimination Law passed. No one can be sacked because they are gay or lesbian. There is a Refugee Bill in the Dail (Irish Parliament). Refugees who flee to Ireland from places like Iran or Peru, where you can be murdered for being gay, may now be able to apply for assylum on such grounds. And sexual orientation is going to be part of school's sex education. God knows how thats going to go down. That'll be interesting!! Excerpts taken from an interview with SUSIE BYRNE, co-chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network in an article published by THE INDEPENDANT on Nov.22 1994.