A life in LGBTQ+ activism

Dr. Michael Barron is an Irish community activist who since the late 1990s has worked with minority and marginalized communities. He was centrally involved in the LGBTI+ rights movement in Ireland (including the marriage equality referendum campaigns) as founding director of BeLonG To, the campaign to remove the ‘Baptism Barrier’ from Irish schools. He carried out the official review of the Together For Yes referendum campaign for abortion rights in Ireland and is a Council of Europe expert in the areas of both sexual orientation/gender identity and national minorities. He has focused much of his work on building cross-community coalitions for social justice and currently works as a funder of equality movements. He has written extensively on social movements and the role of civil society in effecting legislative and policy change