Ireland in Comparison: An Analysis of National and International LGBTQIA+ Student Experiences

Image Credit: Sepamu via Wikimedia Commons

Thanks to her experience as a queer student in different countries, Deputy Editor Ilaria Riccio evaluates how Ireland fares in regards to inclusivity for LGBTQ+ students.

Coming in-between teenage years and adulthood, the university experience is often accompanied by personal growth with regards to a person’s identity. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ students. It is a frequent occurrence that queer students first feel comfortable exploring and acting on their identities while at university. Nevertheless, the university experience is always a subjective experience, as is the personal journey that leads to the discovering of a person’s identity; the environment within which this journey happens deeply influences its outcome. 

I could attest to the reality of this statement personally: born and bred in Southern Italy, I spent my entire university experience abroad - in the UK first and in UCD for the past two years. Therefore, I have first-hand experience with the living situations of queer students in all three countries – and Ireland is more welcoming to LGBTQ+ people than it may appear. 

Italy is an outlier in Europe with regards to LGBTQ+ rights. In the annual Rainbow Europe Index compiled by ILGA, Italy ranks 34th out of 49 ranked countries, scoring a mere 25% with its provisions of rights and recognition to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Notably, in October 2021, the Senate rejected a proposed anti-discrimination bill; this means that homophobic hate speech cannot be legally prosecuted in Italy. Furthermore, as of 16th February 2024, Italy remains the only Western European country to have yet to legalise same-sex marriage. 

The prevalence of homophobic attitudes can be pinned down to the importance of the family as a social institution in Italian society. While theoretically a secular country, in practice the Catholic tradition continues to inform matters of gender and sexuality in Italy. And although I did not attend university in Italy, I assume that the prevalence of homophobia in Italian society negatively impacts queer students. 

While theoretically a secular country, in practice the Catholic tradition continues to inform matters of gender and sexuality in Italy.

Whenever I go home, I rarely disclose my queerness in a public setting - which is something I slowly felt comfortable doing as I started my BA in the UK. I enrolled at the University of Manchester, an institution that has a track history of being amongst the most inclusive in the country, ranking 30th on Stonewall’s 2023 Top 100 Employers Index and placing 4th for number of accepted LGBTQ+ applicants in 2020 according to UCAS (tied with the University of the Arts London). Manchester’s reputation as one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly cities in the UK surely helped me becoming more comfortable in my queer identity during my university experience: I lived rather close to the gay village in the city centre, which according to the 2021 census has the highest number of queer residents in Manchester – followed by Fallowfield, where most university residences are located. Although issues persist - especially with regards to the trans community –, the UK nonetheless ranks 17th on the Rainbow Europe Index. This greater societal openness means that LGBTQ+ students have a relatively positive university experience – as confirmed by 47% of respondents to a 2020 UCAS study.

Manchester’s reputation as one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly cities in the UK surely helped me becoming more comfortable in my queer identity during my university experience.

When I moved to Ireland for my Masters’, I was pleasantly surprised to have an even more positive experience than I did in Manchester. It might have been my chosen degree - somehow a Gender Studies MA is a popular choice amongst queer people –, yet I had never felt part of a (queer) community more than during my time in UCD. A Dublin.ie guide on the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in Dublin confirms the overall inclusivity within UCD, with a former student explaining how accepted he felt as a trans man during his college years. Outside campus, the city seems more inclusive to queer people than my hometown – or even Manchester at times. My Italian background perhaps misled me into believing that Ireland’s long-standing Catholic tradition would negatively impact attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people - affecting queer students by extension. On the contrary, there is evidence of increased inclusivity especially following the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2015 – and Ireland ranks right above the UK on the Rainbow Europe Index (16th). Surely, homophobia driven by religion remains an issue, and there is still a long way to go towards full inclusivity.

I had never felt part of a (queer) community more than during my time in UCD.

To reiterate, this positive view of being a queer student in Ireland stems from personal experience – I am after all a White, cisgender woman. This does not mean that Ireland (and Dublin specifically) is the ultimate safe haven for LGBTQ+ students: indeed, unfortunately, trans rights still lag behind and discriminatory acts remain frequent. However, my experience as a queer student in different countries has given me a privileged insight into different levels of inclusivity; Ireland may still be far from perfect, but it is definitely on the right track.