A Personal View on the forthcoming Marriage Equality Referendum
With less than two weeks to referendum day both supporters and detractors of Marriage Equality have pulled out all the stops to secure their desired result.
As a gay man this referendum means a lot to me. Why? For me and many other gay people throughout Ireland, this referendum is about more than just marriage equality, it is about recognition from Irish society that we are equals, a fundamental principle of a true republic.
Sadly, as is so common in referenda campaigns in Ireland, this referendum has had its narrative skewed. I was deeply offended when I saw the posters about parentage and surrogacy as I am sure were many single parent families, adoptive parents and those who relied on IVF treatments to have a baby. Not only did the posters suggest that the referendum was about children it also put out a message that there is only one ideal family for a child to be reared, that is Mother, Father and Child.
The fact of the matter is that the no campaign cannot win this argument on the basis of equality, something Breda O’Brien conceded in a podcast debate with Noel Whelan on the Irish Times website. To suggest, as the No campaign have, that marriage equality is about surrogacy is nonsense. A yes vote will not mean that gay couples around Ireland will be rushing to have surrogate children. As a gay man I have no intentions of ever raising a family and I am certain many other gay men and women globally feel the same.
To bring this narrative to the referendum will certainly play on the uncertainties, prejudices and ignorance of many Irish voters. I view their campaign as one built on homophobia, but disguised. Just as this referendum is about more than marriage to me, it also is to the no campaign.
The Yes campaign is simply asking for one thing, Equality before the law. Yes this will change a number of things, it will constitutionally recognise a family with same sex parents or surrogate children, affording them the same rights and protections as an opposite sex family or a family of naturally conceived children – what is so bad about that? The message they are calling for is simple – Vote Yes for Equality, simple and clear. There are no hidden agendas, no plans for surrogate baby factories, no threats to society.
The proposed legislation is to insert this sentence into Article 41 of the constitution:
“Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”
It gives constitutional protection and recognition to same sex marriage which can only be changed by plebiscite. Realistically this could have been legislated for in Dail Eireann without the need for a Constitutional amendment but the Constitutional Convention deemed it to be of significant importance to go before the voting public to be decided.
This is an issue of both civil and human rights, civil because it pertains to a civil right – marriage and human because it ensures that sexuality does not preclude gay people from equality before the law. If this referendum is passed it will send a strong message to the rest of the world that times have significantly changed, for the better and Ireland is in the forefront of that evolution of equality.
The No campaign really needs to ask themselves who are they protecting and who will benefit from a no vote? As far as I can see the only people who will benefit from a no vote are people who do not believe in equality while the entire nation will lose, because a no vote will establish Ireland as society with equality proscribed by law.
Ireland has travelled so far from the dark days of imperial, political and religious subjugation but perhaps not far enough… Yet! Those who object to our existence or extending rights to us need to realise that gay people are people. We are not monsters who intend or have the power to destroy society – that is the job of bankers. We just want to have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else. It is not a huge request but it means a lot.
As the next two weeks unfold I am certain of one thing, that I will read, hear and see things that will deeply offend me. Not because they simply say vote no, but because of the message they will carry and what the no campaign are trying to communicate to the public about the very existence of gay people.
But I am also confident that Ireland will send a clear message on May 22nd as to its intentions for an equal and fair society. Those of us who are standing on the right side of history can be confident what we are trying to achieve is simply to improve the lives and futures of people we love. What we are not trying to do is contract the liberties or reduce the quality of anybody else life.
John F Kennedy once said “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”