ICTU has a proud history of advocating for LGBT+ rights in its history. In 1981 the Cork Gay Collective co-ordinated with the Trade Union Movement, setting up Gay and Lesbian Rights at work. In 1987 a working group within ICTU published “Lesbian and Gay Rights: Guidelines for Negotiators, which at the time was a radical and uncompromising policy demanding equality. ICTU was the first major national organisation to come out unequivocally in favour of equality for LGBT+ people and it had powerful impacts. The ICTU policy opened the door to great advances beginning with the trade-union-negotiated HIV/AIDS policy for the public sector in June 1988 which stated that: ‘Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or medical condition (e.g. haemophilia) will not be tolerated in the Civil Service.’
Links to supporting podcasts: ICTU 40 years trade unions supporting LGBT equality
