There'll be a unique kind of protest outside the Dáil tomorrow.
People are set to kiss outside the Dáil tomorrow afternoon in protest of the lack of hate crime legislation in Ireland.
Appropriately named 'Shift the Hate Away', the protest has been organised by We The People Communications and will take place outside Dáil Éireann from 12.30pm on Wednesday, November 6.
Organisers of the demonstration wrote on Facebook, "Hundreds of members of the LGBTI+ community and their allies will gather outside the Dail on Kildare St at 12:30 on Weds 6 November 2019 to stage a massive kissing protest to demand that the Government shifts gear in introducing hate crime legislation.
https://twitter.com/BeLonG_To/status/1189213085367750656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1189213085367750656&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgcn.ie%2Fshift-the-hate-away-protest-irish-governments-hate-crime-law%2F
"Violence against the LGBTI+ community is on the rise in Dublin. Despite social gains through Marriage Equality and the Gender Recognition Act, and the recent anti-homophobia, biphobia and transphobia campaign called #CallItOut, incidences of hate are increasing. This is an alarming new reality for Dublin’s world-famous LGBTI+ community."
They added, "But Ireland still has no hate crime legislation. Which means, for example, that the recent crime committed against Danilo Matta on Capel Street in Dublin where a gang of 5 or 6 people viciously attacked him with mental bars for kissing his boyfriend is no different in the eyes of the law than a drunken scuffle on the street between, say, rival sports fans.
"These crimes have a ripple effect across the whole LGBTI+ community because are ‘message crimes’, they not only affect the person subjected to them, but they also affect the whole LGBTI+ community because they share the same identity as the victim and therefore our community as a whole feels vulnerable to a similar experience."
Protestors will demand that the government push through hate crime legislation to protect such minority groups in Ireland.
