Social Policy

The impact of social policy on community development work or on disadvantaged communities. If you have carried out or contributed to a recent consultation on government policy, you can use this an evidence. But you need to show your understanding, not just the response that your group submitted! If you have not been involved in this, you can take a recent government policy and discuss its impact on the community development/disadvantaged communities

In this assignment I will review the most significant policy changes that have taken place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Irish society since the 1960’s. I will look at the legislative changes that have been developed to protect the rights of LGBT people such as the decriminalisation of homosexuality; the Employment Equality Act and the Equal Status Act both including sexual orientation as a protected ground. I will explore the area of exclusion of LGBT people from civil marriage and how it disadvantages them in the field of legal rights, taxation, pensions and services. I will also discuss the provision of services such as education and the policies that are put in place in each of these systems to include equal access to members of the LGBT community.
Over the last number of years there has been significant progress made in achieving legislative protection for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Irish society. Never before have LGBT people been more accepted as being seen as equal with the heterosexual majority than they are in the present day. Compared with just over fifteen years ago homosexuality was still illegal in Ireland. The government’s recognition of LGBT rights has expanded greatly since homosexuality was decriminalised in 1993, and discrimination based on sexual orientation had then been prohibited.   During the 1960’s many countries were going through a time of social and political activism but for LGBT people in Ireland they remained invisible and very...