The Government’s proposed civil partnership legislation will not bring equality to gay and lesbian people in Ireland

Noise strongly condemns the government’s decision to ignore the repeated calls for the lifting of the ban on same sex marriage and press on with the second-class civil partnership legislation. Noise believes that this bill will only serve to cement inequality  for gay and lesbian people by explicitly excluding them from the primary social insitution of marriage, and that it is nothing but state-endorsed discrimintaion. Gay couples should not be forced into a situation where they are made to participate in their own discrimination out of urgent necessity to regularise their legal arrangements.

Noise Organiser, Liam Connolly says, “The majority of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) community groups are calling for same sex marriage rights rather than civil partnership. Almost 1000 people attended a Noise rally last April,  demanding the right to marry, and thousands more are expected to march for marriage on 9 August. From this, it is quite clear that the LGBT community does not want civil partnership. It wants equality, and that means the right of same sex couples to marry.

He continues, ‘Yet the government insists on introducing a civil partnership bill which, by its very nature, is unequal. It is unequal because it is separate. Even if its provisions were identical to marriage, it would still send out a message that same sex relationships are inferior, that our love and our families don’t count and that gay people do not deserve an equal standing in society. Marriage is perceived as an institution that stands at the heart of society. It is romantic. It speaks of love, family and commitment. Civil partnership is none of these things. It is an insult.’

The government is at odds with public opinion on the issue of gay civil marriage. A consistent majority has shown itself in support of lifting the ban on same-sex marriage in Ireland over the past two years. The most recent Landsowne poll commissioned by MarriagEquality put this at 62%. In addition, 84% of people agree that children raised by gay and lesbian parents should have the same rights and protections as children raised by heterosexual parents. Even the government’s own Colley report found in 2006 that marriage was the only equality option for gay and lesbian families.

Connolly adds, ‘The government has been hiding behind a claim that same-sex marriage will be unconstitutional, but nowhere in the constitution is marriage defined as being between a man and a woman. There is no reason not to lift the ban on same sex marriage today.’

Noise calls on the government to abandon the wasteful and discriminatory civil partnership bill and allow same sex couples access to full civil marriage, thus putting an end to the long saga of injustice and discrimination against gay and lesbian people in this country.