Name Tiernan Brady | ||
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Education B.A. in Economics U.C.D.
M.A. in International Relations D.C.U. Organization GLEN - The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network Known for political and LGBT rights campaigner | ||
What Australia can learn from Ireland’s same-sex marriage success - The Feed
Tiernan Brady is an Irish political and LGBT rights and equality campaigner. He is the Director of Australians for Equality which runs the Equality Campaign for Marriage Equality in Australia with Australian Marriage Equality. He was the Director of Gay HIV Strategies in GLEN – The Irish Gay and Lesbian Equality Network. and the political director of the Yes Equality campaign
Contents
- What Australia can learn from Irelands same sex marriage success The Feed
- Politics
- Equality campaigner
- Personal life
- References
Politics
Brady was elected to Bundoran Town Council in 1999 and re-elected in 2004. He twice served as council chair. In 2005 Brady introduced Ireland's first derelict property tax to address underdevelopment and hoarding of properties by developers.
As council chair, Brady proposed the creation of special coastal conservation zones to prevent residential zoning in areas of natural beauty. These proposals pitted him against councillors from his own party, but they passed. In 2007 Brady let it be known that he would not stand again.
From 2000–2007 he served as Director of Organisation for Pat the Cope Gallagher, MEP and Mary Coughlan, TD.
In October 2013 Brady announced that he would seek to be the Fianna Fáil candidate in the Dublin constituency for the 2014 European elections but was unsuccessful.
Equality campaigner
In 2009 Brady became Director of Gay HIV Strategies with GLEN – The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network. GLEN successfully lobbied to pass the Civil Partnership Act in 2011. In April 2013 Brady addressed the Constitutional Convention to argue for marriage equality. In 2012 he led the successful bid for Dublin to host the 15th Annual Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association - Europe (ILGA-Europe) and chaired the conference organising committee. The ILGA conference is the largest of its kind in Europe with delegates from over 40 countries attending.
In 2016, Brady moved to Australia to work with Australian Marriage Equality. The coalition government led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a policy of holding a national plebiscite to decide the issue. Brady designed the strategy to both prepare for the plebiscite if it happened whilst working to defeat the proposition and get parliament to pass marriage equality by a vote in parliament. As Director, he launched the Equality Campaign, a joint campaign by Australian Marriage Equality and Australians 4 Equality to push for marriage equality. The proposal to hold a plebiscite on marriage equality was defeated in the Australian Senate on 8 November 2016. With the plebiscite successfully defeated, the Equality campaign is now campaigning to get parliament to vote on marriage equality in 2017.
Personal life
Brady was born in Enniskillen Co.Fermanagh and grew up in the Republic of Ireland in Bundoran, Co.Donegal. He studied at University College Dublin, where he became chair of the Kevin Barry Cumann, one of the largest Fianna Fáil groups in Ireland.
Brady has a degree in economics from UCD and a masters in international relations from DCU. In 1995 he was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and spent 7 months undergoing chemotherapy in St James's Hospital, Dublin. He has three sisters, one of whom is Tara Brady, film reviewer with the Irish Times. He is openly gay.