Ireland is deeply concerned at the “alarming pushback against LGBTI rights and the rise of violence and hatred towards LGBTI people at home and abroad”, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. In a speech to an event at the United Nations in New York on Monday, he said “draconian laws” were being re-introduced in some countries. He said these included “the threat of the death penalty, openly discriminatory laws” while there was an increasing backlash against transgender people, and heightened polarisation, including at the United Nations.