Castlebar flies rainbow flags in support of LGBT community

PRIME POSITION?The LGBT Rainbow flag flying over the office of An Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Castlebar as part of Social Inclusion Week 2013. ?Pic: Alison Laredo

Castlebar flies rainbow flags in support of LGBT community


Edwin McGreal

Colourful rainbow flags are flying on public buildings and businesses throughout Castlebar all this week. Part of Social Inclusion Week, the flags have been erected to highlight awareness of  and support for the local LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.
Social Inclusion Week, which is running nationally, continues until this Sunday, October 20. Castlebar’s participation was officially launched when Mayo County Council raised the rainbow flag – which has long been used to represent the LGBT movement – on Wednesday last.
Castlebar-based LGBT group TOST? is raising the flag around the town in association with Mayo County Council, Castlebar Town Council, Mayo County Development Board, Mayo South West Leader, Castlebar Neighbourhood Youth Project and the Le Chéile FRC. The new bridge near St Gerald’s College has also been lit up with rainbow colours.
“They are visible symbols that Castlebar welcomes and supports diversity as part of Social Inclusion Week,” Francis Chambers of TOST? told The Mayo News, adding that he’s  been very pleased with the response they’ve received.
“I was quite touched, even by the picture of the Garda Superintendent, Mayo County Council and councillors showing their support. If you went back ten years or so ago when I was coming out it would have been a different story.
“The amount of businesses that put up flags straightaway was eye-opening. Not everyone was in agreement, but then not everyone will be in agreement with most things,” he said.

Breaking the silence
‘Tost’ means ‘silence’ in Irish, and TOST?’s name was chosen to reflect its aims – to break the silence surrounding LGBT issues. Another of its goals was to establish a safe forum for young LGBT people to explore issues affecting their lives, which it also achieved since its formation three years ago.
In addition, TOST? has hosted a series of events, such as LGBT-awareness training for local services and an information evening on Civil Partnership.
Chambers, a native of Newport living in Castlebar, and his partner, Graeme Fisher, had their Civil Partnership service in March of 2012. He hopes that it is becoming easier for young people to come out in Mayo, but he says more needs to be done.
“I personally feel I’m involved in a group that offers great assistance, but are there enough supports in the county? I think not. It needs to start in the schools. That’s the best place to try and change mindsets,” he said. Chambers advocates the establishment of proper support structures to support Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s anti-homophobic bullying policy. “[That] would be a great move. It should not just be a policy for the sake of it.”
Chambers continued: “Coming out can be a life-changing move; it can be isolating. The worst thing for someone in that situation is to look for support and it either isn’t there, or if it is, that the person giving the support isn’t adequately trained to do so and could give the wrong advice, which might set the person back a lot.”

MORE www.lgbtmayo.com