For this month’s Q+A podcast, we sat down with two trailblazing activists to discuss the intersectional nature of the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment and the LGBT+ community.

In celebration of 2018’s International Women’s Day, our very own GCN staffer, Lisa Connell has a conversation with Irish Times journalist Una Mullally, and campaigner Anna Cosgrave, both prominent feminist activists in Ireland.

They discuss how and why abortion rights in Ireland are a queer issue and celebrate the fact that LGBT+ folk are on the frontlines of social justice in the country.

They discuss the most common reservations, questions, opinions and held beliefs and go beyond the superficial rhetorics that are overused and share the more considered explantion.

The pair unpack the 8th amendment referendum from the point of view of the LGBT+ community and how it impacts the everyone at a societal level, as Una says “I think if people are saying it’s not our issue it’s actually a choice you’re making to exclude yourself from what is everybody’s issues.

“I think particularly as queer people, we rely and have relied so much on solidarity in order to achieve our rights, particularly around the decriminisation of sexual acts between men, that fight was fought by queer people and also by straight women.”

Anna adds, “[The Abortion Referendum Bill] is a collective Irish issue that isn’t neccessarily just centred on the idea of the abortion, it’s very much about what it means to be free and excepted and I think I lot of those struggles and feelings around identity and freedom are shared amongst both quer and striaght people who have their rights infringed upon.”

Listen to Q+A Episode 4: Queer and the 8th wherever you get your podcasts, on audioboom, or listen directly below:

Music by Will St. Leger and Faune.