Heartwarming Dublin Bus campaign sheds light on older LGBT people for Pride

Jul 02 2019
Written by Emma Powys Maurice

Dublin Bus’s 2019 Pride video, entitled “The Long Road to Pride” (YouTube/Dublin Bus)

A bus operator in Dublin has released an emotional video paying tribute to the Republic of Ireland’s older LGBT+ community, who “fought for our right to be who we are.”

The video published by Dublin Bus on Monday (July 1) is entitled “The Long Road to Pride.” It features four older LGBT+ people who discuss their struggles in coming to terms with their identity in an extremely conservative Catholic country, where being gay was illegal until 1995.

Heartbreakingly, one man recalls telling a doctor, “I couldn’t live without affection,” and the doctor replied, “What right have you to affection?”

A second man admits: “I thought I was the only one. Like, why did I have a kind of a weakness?”

“When I grew up I didn’t know I was gay because there was no word, I’d never heard of the word,” another says candidly.

The stars of the video admit that they have never been to Dublin Pride. “Dancing in the streets is for the young and beautiful, and should be left to the young and beautiful,” one explains.

The cameras then follow several younger LGBT+ people as they meet their older counterparts and invite each of them to attend Dublin Pride for the first time in their lives.

The touching film shows the four older people being honoured at Dublin Pride on Saturday (June 29) as they walk in front of a rainbow double-decker bus. The expressions on their faces will move you to tears as one of the men concludes: “[Life] is a journey until you actually shed the loads that you’re carrying, and then you can dance!”

The accompanying message on the video reads: “For many, the road to Pride is a long one. This year, we were lucky enough to give some older members of Ireland’s LGBTQ+ the Pride they never had.”

Dublin Bus is a prominent figure at Dublin’s annual Pride parades, and last year released a heartwarming video of the “proud dads” of LGBT+ people.

Both the 2018 and 2019 videos were met with a huge emotional response from viewers, which reflects the changing attitudes towards LGBT+ lifestyles in the Republic of Ireland after gay marriage was legalised in 2015.

@Dublin_Suzy wrote on Twitter: “You feckers made me cry two years in a row. Will you stop it!!”