The death took place on 23 March of Chris Robson, co-founder of Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), long-serving member of the executive of the ICCL, member of the Equality Coalition in the 1990s and deeply committed LGBT rights campaigner and human rights activist.
A packed and moving memorial gathering for Chris took place at the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, on 30th March. Tributes were paid by his colleagues in GLEN and other LGBT campaigns, the ICCL, the OPW and Department of Agriculture, where he worked when he wasn’t campaigning and where he displayed his deep concern for the rural landscape, and most movingly by his partner of 35 years, Bill Foley.
Chris and Bill had begun their relationship as potential criminals under the law banning homosexuality, but they were able to celebrate their civil partnership not long before Chris died. It is a pity he did not live long enough for them to be able to marry like straight couples.
Chris Robson was a crucial figure in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights and was central to the achievement of decriminalisation in 1993 and civil partnership in 2010, and he was still campaigning for gay marriage until the time of his death. He was also a committed campaigner for civil liberties and human rights on the widest front as an active member of the ICCL executive committee for ten years. And he played an important role in the campaign to bring about broad-ranging equality legislation and was still involved with the Equality and Rights Alliance until shortly before his death.
But at the memorial service, speaker after speaker stressed most of all that while he was passionate about the causes he espoused, he was also kind, courteous and generous; a man whom it was a pleasure to know and to work with.
Click here for tribute paid to Chris Robson at the memorial meeting by Michael Farrell, FLAC solicitor