08 Informed Equalities


Lyra’s legacy to LGBT+ cheered


Teresa May and Leo Varadkar; Ireland’s president Michael D Higgins; Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn; and Arlene Foster and Mary Lou MacDonald, leaders of the DUP and Sinn Fein parties. Te NUJ’s general secretary and Irish secretary were also present and NUJ members formed a guard of honour when her coffin was taken into Belfast’s St Anne’s cathedral. Te TUC LGBT+ conference heard


NUJ delegates to TUC LGBT+ conference Marina Kazakova, Guy Tornton, Ann Galpin & Adam Christie


Frances Rafferty rounds up the NUJ’s activities promoting equality and diversity


Delegates to the Irish TUC remembered Lyra McKee, the young journalist killed during a riot in Derry. She was given a minute’s applause at the NUJ’s national executive and a minute’s silence by those atending the TUC’s LGBT+ workers’ conference. Part of Lyra’s legacy was as an LGBT+


activist and her Leter to my 14-year-old Self, writen when she was 24, should be on the curriculum. It describes the challenges of growing up gay in Belfast, how it was all OK when she came out to her mother and friends and how she fell in love for the first time, had her heart broken, but fell in love again. She was 29 when she was shot by the dissident republican group, the New IRA, during its atack on the police in Creggan. She campaigned on issues including mental health, suicide, inequality and social exclusion and her loss to her loved ones and to journalism was recognised at her funeral by two prime ministers,


from Nick Trier, national executive member and delegate for the National Union of Schoolmasters and Women Teachers, who was in Belfast the night Lyra was killed. He joined vigils in her honour, he said, and was moved by the emotion displayed for someone so widely and strongly admired and loved. A book of condolences for Lyra was opened at conference. Te Pride marches are all about celebrating diversity and the batles fought by activists such as Lyra, but this year’s London parade appeared to be a victim of its own success. Photographers and the media found that new “security rules” meant they were denied access to parts of the march they needed to do their job. Tanks to swiſt negotiations by the NUJ, and complaints by other photographer groups, appropriate accreditation was issued and Pride in London agreed to discuss arrangements for next year with the union.


Te NUJ’s TUC delegation voted on motions including: protection for those living in countries where homosexuality is illegal; full access to the AIDs prevention drug PrEP; the end of detention of LGBT+ asylum seekers; equal marriage in Northern Ireland; trans equality; and the banning of conversion therapy. Te huge rise in racism, hate crime and far-right atacks because of Brexit and wider global trends were themes picked up by a succession of speakers at this year’s TUC Black Workers’ Conference. Te NUJ’s delegation voted for motions which called on the TUC to co-ordinate a robust response to racism and Islamophobia in workplaces and with


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