The following speech was given by Noise Organiser, Dr. Mark McCarron at the NOISE Flash Demo held outside Dáil Éireann during the debate on the Civil Partnership Bill 2009.
Gay: An ‘Intrinsic biological fact’
We stand here today with our families, friends and co-workers for two reasons.
Firstly, we stand here to acknowledge that, while the Civil Partnership bill might give solace to some members of our community who urgently need the limited rights in the bill, in reality this is not a victory for Ireland’s LGBT community. Our Government is forcing us into a corner. They are forcing us to participate in our own discrimination by accepting, out of necessity, the measures contained within the bill. And so, we stand here today to remind the Government that they have not done enough until they have actually granted us full equality. As equal citizens, we should have equal access to the fundamental rights of citizenship, including the right to civil marriage.
Secondly, we stand here today to highlight gaping deficiencies in the bill such as the complete lack of any rights for - indeed, any mention of - gay parents and their children. These children deserve a legal relationship with their parents and they also deserve the right to know that their parents have the choice to marry.
In this weeks Sunday Tribune, Senator Jim Walsh stated that ‘Many people may be inherently gay while others may be gay because of environmental factors.’
Lets educate Senator Walsh. Gay people possess an inborn, life-defining characteristic similar to ethnicity, race or gender.
Being gay is not a ‘perverse choice’. It’s not a result of ’seduction by an older gay’. It’s not due to ‘being raised by an overbearing mother’. It’s not the fault of an ‘absent or aloof father‘. And it is certainly not due to a ‘traumatic early heterosexual experience’.
The modern scientific consensus is clear: ‘Sexual orientation is largely decided by time of birth, partly by genetics and partly by hormonal activity in the womb. Social factors play no appreciable role’. The only ‘environmental factors‘ at play, Senator Walsh, are those in the womb.
The dry language of science is given new meaning when we look around and realise that there are very few lives in Ireland today that are not interwoven with the life of a gay person. A gay person, and not some abstract, obscure, unknown homosexual.
If we are to accept this simple fact, that being gay is not an acquired or learned phenomenon that cannot be magically cured (please take note Iris Robinson), then there must be social policy consequences as a result of this realisation. There was a time when the law allowed women to be treated as inferior to men. Today, we look upon such gross inequalities with revulsion. Now, that is not to pretend that intellectual acceptance of gay as an intrinsic biological fact will result in a sudden end to prejudice, bigotry and homophobia in society. That will take time. But at the very least, we should expect our Government to accept the principle that we are not deviant; we don’t damage the greater good, and we are entitled to the full range of human and civil rights. It is the job of Government to lead.
The Civil Partnership Bill 2009
Which leads me to the Civil Partnership Bill 2009.
In a succinct analysis of the Civil Partnership Bill that only an Irish mammy can provide, my mother asked, ‘Jesus, why are they trying to re-invent the wheel?’
Why indeed? Why are they creating a completely new form of legal recognition, when a perfectly good one, despite all its imperfections, already exists?
We stand here today at Dáil Éireann, where our legislators should be guided by the principles of our constitution, ‘All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law’ - yet where a law is being discussed right now that relegates a whole population of Irish people to a second-class citizenship.
There is no well-thought-out rationale point for creating a completely separate registration scheme for same-sex couples while opposite sex couples register their relationships with the state through civil marriage.
Their explanations for this consist of two excuses. Both hold little water.
Excuse No1.
A favourite tactic of the Government, designed to end discussion on any topic, is to hide behind the constitution. The excuse is that there is a ‘constitutional impediment’ to same sex marriage. Well, without being too technical, this is nonsense. The constitution does not define marriage at any point as being between a man and a woman. We are lead to believe the Attorney General has provided advice to the Government that marriage will be interpreted by the Supreme Court as being exclusively between a man and a woman. Their hands are tied they say - same-sex marriage just isn’t possible.
Well, that’s not their decision. That’s for the Supreme Court to decide. We say let’s introduce same-sex marriage by amending the Civil Registration Act 2004, let the President refer it to the Supreme Court and then let the Court decide. After all, the Government had no problem taking this risk with the recent Justice Bill. The Supreme Court will have a choice: impose a conservative, limited interpretation of marriage on the people, or agree with the people’s elected representatives in the Oireahtas and let loving and committed Irish gay couples marry.
Excuse No2.
It is the view of the Minister for Justice and EQUALITY that he must balance the needs of gay people against the shrill objections of tiny but vocal sectors of Irish society. I can only conclude from this that the Civil Partnership Bill is a cowardly compromise on the principles of equality. In a desperate bid not to offend a mystical and non-existent secret majority opposition to same sex marriage evoked by conservative right-wing groups, he actually offends decency and compassion. He clearly believes that quality of life for some people is secondary in this ideological warfare. He is wrong. There is no secret majority. The real majority of Irish people are fair minded. Even back in 2006, 51% of people believed that same-sex couples should have the right to marry. The most recent poll in March 2009 found that 61% of people believe that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is discriminatory.
If they can do it in holy Catholic Spain, then surely we can do it here.
Children’s welfare
In what amounts to the most disgusting and shocking omissions from the Civil Partnership Bill, the children of same sex partners are completely ignored. For the record minister, there have been, there are and there will always be gay families in Ireland.
At this point, it is fair to acknowledge that people have real concerns about child welfare in this debate. These are legitimate concerns and do not automatically make a person a bigot or a homophobe. However, such concerns can be easily addressed when we look at the facts surrounding gay parents and gay families.
First of all, don’t listen to right-wing lobby groups. Don’t even listen to gay rights groups. Instead, let’s listen to the experts.
Over thirty years of sociological and psychological evidence has been accumulated on the topic of same-sex parenting. All of this evidence has been evaluated by reputable international bodies such as the American Academy of Paediatrics and they have found that, on balance, the children of same-sex parents fare just as well as the children of opposite-sex parents.
Recently, one of Ireland’s leading academics on child welfare has also examined the evidence. Professor Sheila Green is Director of the Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin. She says
‘Children within gay and lesbian families are not any more or less gay, they are not confused and they don’t suffer from mental health problems to any greater or lesser extend than children being reared by a biological mother and father.’
In fact, the major threat to the well being of children in gay families is that their families are not legally recognised. This is not to say that allowing same sex parents to marry will end all problems for gay families. It is widely acknowledged that significant reform of family law is required in Ireland to take account of the many types of family forms that now exist here. But, in the case of the children of gay families, every one of these children deserves the chance for a secure and legally recognised relationship with both of their mams or both of their dads.
This Government wants to exclude the most vulnerable people in society, our children, and this should offend every one of us present here today.
The marriage campaign
Finally, I’d like to talk about the marrriage campaign into the future. We stand here today at a defining moment for LGBT rights in Ireland.
The debate has raged: Do we take a stepping stone approach - accept civil partnership now, and solve some of the problems, in the hope that better will come along in the future; or do we demand nothing less than full civil marriage from the word go?
I believe that gay community is capable of a more subtle analysis than that.
As with many things in Ireland, it’s simple and complicated all at the same time. The goal of attaining full equality will require many parallel strategies.
Just as it is important to acknowledge that real people have real needs now that might be partially met if the Government goes ahead with Civil Partnership, it is also important to continuously articulate the goal of full civil marriage as representing full equality for Ireland’s gay community.
We do this today.
LGBT Noise, Marriage Equality, the gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), Direct action group EQUALS, the National Gay and Lesbian Federation (NLGF) and many groups from the wider Irish community such as Amnesty International and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties all believe the same thing. We all believe that civil marriage for gay people is the true equality outcome of this campaign.
I am confident that we in the LGBT community won’t direct our ‘righteous anger‘ inwards - we’ll direct it where it belongs: at a Government that continues to ignore both the LGBT community and the fair minded people of Ireland.
I am confident that the Government will find that it has woken a sleeping giant. The gay marriage campaign has acted, as demonstrated here today and in August when 5000 people marched on the DOJ, as a unifying and electrifying call to action. I believe that we are seeing our community undergo a re-birth. New generations of LGBT people are confidently taking up the legacy of the fight for decriminalisation and extending this to the full legal recognition of our loving relationships. With the achievement of a critical mass of political mobilisation, the many additional inequalities that continue to exist for the LGBT community can then be tackled and same-sex marriage can be achieved.
The marriage campaign is entering a new phase. NOISE will continue, through marches and rallies to draw public and media attention to our quest for equality. We will continue to send a clear message that we will not be pacified anymore by piecemeal advances towards equality. Everybody here today must become an ambassador for equality to your friends, to your families, to your colleagues and crucially to your elected representatives.
Those who love you will support you.
You community will support you.
Government TDs will try to buy you off with second best.
Well, Equality is not for sale!
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