“I was sitting at an LGBT conference and it was like a slap across the face. It was only when she was in University College Cork and became active in student politics that she embraced her identity. Senator Annie Hoey (Image: Gareth Chaney/Collins) “Then I was in a relationship with a guy for a while.” Although there weren’t many out people in school at that time. She explained: “I went to an all-girls school, and I had a very close friend in school and things were as they were between us. I don’t think I ever introduced anyone as girlfriend, boyfriend or non-friend! She doesn’t remember any big dramatic announcement about it to her family: “She was just kind of there. She had a girlfriend in secondary school. She joked: “I had been playing along with the male gaze! Feminist philosophy eat your heart out!” It was like: ‘Oh! This is extremely helpful!’ I suppose I’d acted on it in a hypersexualised way.”
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“So I was thinking I was only doing it because the boys liked it. “When I was a teen it was all the rage, because the boys liked it,” she said. In her teenage years, she noticed some benefits to being a girl who kissed girls. Growing up on a farm near Drogheda, just over the Meath border, Annie says she was aware of her sexuality since primary school. I stepped into myself and I have never been the same since.” She said: “It was then I let my heart feel it. Despite having boyfriends and girlfriends when younger, Annie didn’t realise fully she was bisexual until she was in college.
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She explained: “It can be kind of a weird one to say out loud. The binary boxes of ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ are more straightforward to grasp.ĭespite progress in recent years, some view bisexuality as a greedy or promiscuous choice. I have had bi-pride for quite some time.”Īnnie, 33, says those who identify as bisexual can be dismissed or misunderstood. “I’ve been out for a long time – since college.
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Said Annie: “I’m the first out bisexual in the Oireachtas. Read More: Irish Senator Annie Hoey channels famous characters in brilliant costume challenge The young Meath woman – who studied Theatre in UCC – spoke to the Irish Mirror to launch the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, which runs for the next fortnight. The Labour party trailblazer says she “always knew” she liked “both boys and girls” and reckons it’s important to represent the LGBT community as a public figure. Senator Annie Hoey has told of her pride in being bisexual, saying: “I’m the only ‘out’ woman in Irish politics.”