On Thursday, July 27, accreditation membership body Certified Proud organised the ‘Maintain the Momentum’ event in the Huckletree building, at the Academy in Dublin. The evening brought together member companies, allies and activists in a discussion on how businesses can maintain their support for the LGBTQ+ community beyond Pride.

The event featured a fantastic panel composed of guest speakers Séamus Kearney Martone, from Irish Gay Dads; performer and broadcaster Paul Ryder; and co-founder of Certified Proud Donya Anvari. Sharing their personal stories, the three speakers covered a variety of topics, including active allyship and how important it is for queer folks to have visible signs of support in their workplace.

Donya Anvari recounted how she and the other two co-founders Liam Redmond and Eve Kerton created Certified Proud, with the aim to ensure the safety and comfort of LGBTQ+ staff and customers throughout businesses in Ireland and beyond. The social enterprise works tirelessly to ensure that the queer community is safe both at work and out through training, consultancy, philanthropy, branding, and best practice sharing.

Moreover, with the aim of giving back to the community, the co-founders decided that 40% of each business’ membership fee go straight into the Certified Proud Fund, which supports charities and non-profit organisations. Last year, winners of the fund included Switchboard, HIV Ireland, Na Gaeil Aeracha and South Hill Hub.

 

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Paul Ryder, who in addition to being a successful TV and radio broadcaster is also one of the most famous drag queens in Ireland, shared how important it is to have LGBTQ+ representation in media and the impact that having queer role models can have on future generations.

Finally, Séamus Kearney Martone shared insights into the tireless work that LGBTQ+ community groups are doing after the announcement that same-sex couples will be excluded from Ireland’s newly announced publicly funded IVF scheme, which begins in September.

 

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Before the end of the event, the co-founders announced this year’s winners of The Certified Proud Fund: South Hill Hub in Limerick and yours truly, GCN. On behalf of the entire organisation, our head of Digital, Marketing and Development, Stefano Pappalardo, thanked Certified Proud for awarding the fund to GCN, which will help us continue our work in informing, entertaining and platforming the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland, both online and in print.

For more information on the work of Certified Proud, visit their website here.