Sixteen Irish candidates running for election in today’s European elections are listed as signatories of a pledge from the European arm of an organisation which previously lost consultative status with a UN body after it became known that it counted paedophile groups, including NAMBLA, amongst its members.
The Irish signatories of the pledge, who are listed in full below, include members of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, the Green Party, Labour, and Independents.
The pledge, which commits candidates to be a “firm supporter” of LGBT rights, also contains a commitment to “put the safety of the community above any other concerns and always follow the “do no harm” principle, including by keeping my work out of the public eye whenever necessary.”
1082 candidates across the EU had, at the time of writing, signed the pledge.
The Come Out 4 Europe pledge was produced by ILGA-Europe, the European arm of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). The ILGA is a worldwide federation of nearly 2,000 LGBT advocacy groups.
The group was founded in 1978 in Coventry, England. One of the groups founders was Ian Dunn, a gay rights activist who had helped found the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) in 1974. PIE, according to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, “openly campaigned for the lowering of the age of consent and made concerted efforts to normalise and justify sexual relationships between adults and children.”
Dunn denied being a paedophile himself, although the Times quote Dunn as having said “I am not one of those homosexuals who get cross or nervous when the subject of love between men and boys is raised.” Dunn helped organize pro-paedophilia meetings in multiple cities and his home address was used as the point of contact for PIE’s magazine, Minor Problems – a publication he had urged people to support.
Famously, in 1994, the ILGA lost its consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), having only been granted the status the previous year, over what the New York Times called a “dispute over pedophilia.” The loss of status came after American politicians, who had discovered that the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), a pro-paedophile advocacy group, was a member of the ILGA, lobbied for the ILGA’s consultative status to be revoked. ECOSOC subsequently removed the status from the ILGA.
The ILGA expelled NAMBLA, and two other paedophile groups, in 1994, stating that “These groups had joined ILGA at an earlier stage of ILGA’s development, at a time when ILGA did not have in place administrative procedures to scrutinize the constitutions and policies of groups seeking membership. At no time, however, did ILGA support or endorse their positions.”
The ILGA further stated that the group had previously passed a resolution “categorically rejecting any attempt to promote or legalize paedophilia,” and that “should we receive information at any time that a member group is violating ILGA’s constitution by advocating or promoting paedophilia then, in accordance with the Constitution, the Board of ILGA would immediately suspend that group’s membership pending a full investigation and review. Any group found to be violating the Constitution in this way would face expulsion from membership.”
Despite that the attempts of the ILGA to regain its consultative status failed until 2011, when the status was granted again by the ECOSOC Council. Prior to that the ILGA’s applications for the status had been rejected three times – the ILGA stated that “No grounds were offered for this rejection other than an impugned link between ILGA and paedophilia.”
Gript first reported on the ILGA in 2021, when we reported that the group had signed a “Feminist Declaration” which called on governments to, amongst other things, “eliminate all laws and policies…that limit the exercise of bodily autonomy, including laws limiting legal capacity of adolescents…to provide consent to sex.”
Following our reporting the ILGA released a statement saying that “.” We requested clarification from the ILGA on why they would had signed the declaration if they do not support the elimination of laws which limit the capacity of adolescents to provide consent to sex, but we never received an answer.
The pledge itself includes commitments to, if elected:
- Be a “firm supporter” of “LGBTI people’s human rights and equality in the European Union and beyond”;
- “Act as a strong defender of LGBT organisations and human rights defenders across Europe and beyond by…working to secure sustainable and accessible EU funding”;
- “Propose and advocate for EU policies and laws that provide explicit protection on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.”
Irish Signatories, party affiliation, and constituency.
Bríd Smith, People Before Profit, Dublin.
Regina Doherty, Fine Gael, Dublin.
Barry Andrews, Fianna Fail, Dublin.
Brian O’Boyle, People Before Profit, Midlands-North-West.
Cian Prendiville, People Before Profit, South.
Pauline O’Reilly, Green Party, Midlands-North-West.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Labour Party, Dublin.
Rory Hearne, Social Democrats, Midlands-North-West.
Ciarán Cuffe, Green Party, Dublin.
Grace O’Sullivan, Green Party, South.
Luke “Ming” Flanagan, Independent, Midlands-North-West.
Fergal Landy, Labour Party, Midlands-North-West.
Billy Kelleher, Fianna Fail, South.
Sinead Gibney, Social Democrats, Dublin,
Niamh Hourigan, Labour Party, South.
Maria Walsh, Fine Gael, Midlands-North-West.
We have requested comment from all of the Irish candidates listed as signatories, and we will update this piece as we receive them.
