HIS STRUGGLES OVER SEXUALITY
children. He is living with that pain and suffering and those demons.”
The LGBT Ireland report for 2019, published last month, revealed stigma and discrimination are still the community’s greatest challenges.
LGBT Ireland chief Paula Fagan said: “Those on the margins… including Travellers, are particularly vulnerable to stigma and discrimination.
“While Ireland has made huge strides in progressing LGBT rights over the past decade, there is still much work left to be done in law and policy reform.”
Reality star Hughie Maughan famously revealed he was gay in front of millions of viewers on Big Brother – prompting a backlash from his dad.
He had told his family he was bisexual just before entering the reality show and his father, a former boxing coach, said he’d “walk into his grave” to change his son back.
But his dad Hughie Snr later added: “I couldn’t accept it in any way. But who am I to judge anybody?
“Hughie does a lot of good things. We get messages from all over the world, telling us how Hughie had helped other people come out.”
Dillon said his darkest days drove him to the brink of suicide – and he credits the support of close friends for pulling him through.
He added: “As a young boy of 13 or 14 I was so confused about my sexuality, about girls and boys. I was constantly questioning myself.
“I battled with my thoughts and my emotions through the years. I just wasn’t attracted to girls, I was more attracted to boys.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘How do I tell my family, how do I tell my friends, what will they say, will they disown me, will I get killed?’
“The more I was keeping it in, the worse I was getting, feeling suicidal, sitting in my room crying myself to sleep nearly every night.
“Contemplating taking my own life before I’d tell my family I was gay as I didn’t want them to feel ashamed of me or that they done wrong in their
Paula Fagan role of parenting.” Things came to a head when Dillon was 17 and confided in a friend that he was “so scared that I was going to end my life by going into the river”. Another pal persuaded him to talk to his family with her help and support. It took a while for them to believe that he wasn’t “going through a phase” and didn’t want to “settle down and have kids” but eventually they accepted it. Dillon said he is now “out and proud” – but he admits that hate speech still affects him and there are bigots around every corner. He added: “Sometimes you still get it. If you’re walking down the road you could be called f **** t or queer… told gays should be hung. “Or they say, ‘God didn’t make men to be with men or women to be with women, it’s a sin, you’re going to hell’.” Dillon is calling for a support network for Travellers who are struggling to come out and for a confidential helpline to be set up.
He concluded: “I’m glad I came out when I did. If I was any younger I would have thought I was going through a phase.
“Here I am in 2020 telling my story after bravely standing up for what I believe in.
“As a proud gay man it wasn’t easy but I’m soldiering on.
“It’s time for all Travelling boys to stand up, be who you want to be, no more suicide because of your sexuality.”
If you have been affected by anything in this article you can contact the Samaritans at 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.ie.
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age Dillon was when he considered taking his own life