Organisation set up for gay Irish doctors
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans doctors in Ireland now have their own social and support group.
Gay Doctors Ireland (gaydoctorsireland.ie) will hold its first annual general meeting in Dublin next month after being set up in December.
Founder Dr Conor Malone of Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, said similar organisations were running in the UK and around the world.
He told the Irish Times: “I think in general LGBT professionals face similar issues across the board which they encounter in college and the workplace. For LGBT doctors, medicine has traditionally been a very conservative working environment, particularly in the hospitals.
“Medicine is so racially diverse, people are so integrated in other ways . . . it seems the last bastion of the old medical hierarchy is for LGBT doctors to be accepted. It is happening, very slowly but surely.”
Gay Doctors Ireland has around 40 members at present, although many others are involved with the group.
The first AGM takes place on Saturday May 8th 2010 in the Sky Room of the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin.