The campaign, titled ‘STAND UP! Show your support for your Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) friends’ was organized by BeLonG To Youth Services, the national group that works with young people from 14 to 23 years of age. 

The campaign has been brought into worldwide relief by a statement issued by actor Colin Farrell about the impact homophobic bullying has had on his family, and his gay brother. 

"I can't remember much about the years of physical and emotional abuse my brother Eamon suffered, Mr. Farrell said.

“I was very small. The thing I do remember though, quite literally, is blood on his school shirt when he came home in the afternoon.

“The beatings and taunting were very frequent for him and a constant part of his school years.

“I didn't understand at that time the concept of 'difference'. Back then, as now, he was just my big brother. If I did understand what difference was, I understood it in the most pure and unaffected childlike way. To me then, as a child, difference meant being left out. Joy and laughter came with being included, being embraced and belonging to.

“Intolerance is not genetically encoded - it is taught. It is learned at home. It is learned in the classrooms and it is learned anywhere else we gather as a group.

“But it is usually learned early and added onto from there. If there is nothing to be feared, there is nothing to hate. If there is nothing to hate, there is no pain.

“My brother was so forceful in standing up for who he was, and for the good that he knew was inside of him. Many people missed out on an opportunity, not only to enjoy him, but to enjoy themselves by embracing his "difference". They missed out because they saw him as a threat - not as a testament to the kaleidoscope and diversity of this beautiful world.

“Bullying is torture, it is another betrayal of basic human decency and its scars reach way into the future of its survivors.

“But the saddest truth is that not all children survive it. It is a potentially fatal societal illness.

"It should be dealt with as a very real problem and as an adversary of a potentially harmonious world which should have no place for bullies or bullying."

Following these comments from the celebrated actor, news sites and blogs all over the world (including advocate.com, Los Angeles News Today, Yahoo News and Perez Hilton) picked up on the story. BeLonG To’s website www.belongto.org received 16,000 visits on one day alone as a result.

Services offered by BeLonG To include:

• 12 youth groups around the country - in Waterford, Tipperary, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Donegal, Dundalk and Dublin;
• Training and Development – to teachers, youth workers and professionals who work with young people;
• Public awareness raising – which has previously included the Stop Homophobic Bullying Campaign;
• National Policy – work with various government departments to ensure the inclusion of LGBT young people in national policy and strategy;
• Research – including Supporting LGBT Lives – the largest ever study of the LGBT population, funded by the HSE’s National Office for Suicide Prevention.

(Source: BeLonG To Youth Services)