Marriage equality, discrimination at work and bullying are the top issues of concern to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, a new survey reveals.
The Burning Issuesstudy, by the National Gay and Lesbian Federation (NGLF), published today surveyed 1,100 people by email and asked them their priorities.
"The remarkable finding," said Ailbhe Smyth, Chair of the NGLF, "is the convergence of views about the burning issues, among such a diverse community".
"While equal marriage rights and child protection are the top political concerns, it is hugely significant that harassment and exploitation in the workplace is the number one concern."
It was "shameful" that almost a decade into the 21st century Irish citizens were still fearful about being marginalised at work because of their sexuality, and of being harassed, bullied or even violently attacked because of who they were.
Respondents were asked both quantitative questions were issues were 'scored' depending on how important they were, and also open-ended questions where they were asked to identify their political priorities.
The most important issues as scored by respondents were equal rights at work, personal security, marriage equality, support for young LGBT people and supports for people coming out.
"In the current economic climate issues in the workplace surfaced as the fundamental concern of all respondents.
Being able to work in an environment where you can be fully open about your sexuality without fear of discrimination was rated as the most important issue in the survey."
Workplace equality had an overall score of 8.3, on a scale where one was least important and 10 most important. Homophobic violence received an overall score of 8.2.
"Violence against any individual or group cannot be tolerated," said Dr Seán Denyer, co-author of the report.
"The fact that young gay or bisexual men ranked this as their number one issue reveals the extent of the problem."
In the open-ended questioning marriage equality was "overwhelmingly the top priority of respondents with a quarter of them designating it as their most pressing priority".
Civil partnerships were far less important or desirable to the community and achieving these was ranked 12th most important in the open-ended questioning.
"The issue of achieving full equality for LGBT people across all the dimensions of legal, political, social and cultural life is the second most important priority of the respondents."
Lesbian and gay parenting rights, followed by greater supports for LGBT people living outside Dublin were identified as the third and fourth most pressing issues.
The transgender community, said Ms Smyth, was small in number but "acutely disadvantaged".
They ranked equality at work as a number one priority, but - unlike the other groups - ranked access to health and mental health services as number two.
Ms Smyth stressed the survey showed the LGBT community was vibrant and enthusiatically engaging with issues affecting it.
