Trinity LGBT
The Dublin University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Society, also known as Q Soc - Trinity LGBT is a society which supports the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their friends in Trinity College Dublin. The LGBT organises social and community events while offering help and support for LBGT students and providing a safe space for LGBT students on campus. Trinity College recognised the society in 1982 making it the oldest student LGBT society in Ireland.[1]
History
Following the death of Archbishop McQuaid in 1973, Trinity LGBT was created in 1974 as Dublin University Gay Society or "Gay Soc", emerging directly from the Sexual Liberation Movement of David Norris and other Irish gay rights pioneers who were active in Trinity by 1974.[2] While the SLM had split apart into other groupings, the Gay Soc emerged as one of the few remaining splinters from the SLM, and carried out activities for the next near-decade to raise awareness and consciousness among the radicalized student body on campus.
The organization was officially recognized by the Central Societies Committee, on behalf of the Board of Trinity College Dublin, in 1982, and a permanent office was granted to the Gay Soc for the first time. It served as an ideological heart of the movement for liberalization of laws regarding gay and lesbian citizens in Irish society. Besides the Gay Soc, the original SLM also bore the roots of the largely-Trinity-based Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, which succeeded in overturning Ireland's sodomy laws by 1987; Trinity alum and law professor Mary McAleese was its first legal advisor, and fellow alum and professor Mary Robinson was its second.
By the 1990s, the name of the society was changed to incorporate lesbian and bisexual members, and by the early years of the 2000s, it was changed to its present name to incorporate transgender members.
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