Support for the Government's Civil Partnership Bill is not “mature,” but unthinking, the director of the pro-marriage Iona Institute, David Quinn, has said. Responding to remarks by Cork Labour TD Ciaran Lynch in yesterday's Dáil debate on the Bill, Mr Quinn said that supporting “a change in family policy which promotes family diversity and 'equality’” came at the expense of children.
Mr Lynch had said that the debate over same-sex civil unions marked “a coming of age and maturity in modern Ireland.”
Speaking to ciNews, Mr Quinn said, “There is nothing mature, and in fact there is something unthinking about supporting a change in family policy that promotes family diversity and 'equality' at the expense of marriage and children.”
“Marriage is given favoured treatment because it is so beneficial to children. Deputy Lynch has obviously completely lost sight of that.”
Deputy Lynch said that the Labour party supported full same-sex marriage.
The Government's Bill will give nearly all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples, apart from the right to jointly adopt, and the actual name of marriage.
However, he said he saw “the merit in this legislation for those members of the gay community who cannot wait for the time when these circumstances change.”
“For those gay and lesbian couples who need the protection of the law right now, rather than the consolation of an ideal further down the road. I see the merit for the couple where one partner is ill in and the other has no recognised rights as next of kin, fearful of losing the family home or shared tenancy,” he added.
When the Bill was debated last November, Green Party spokesperson on Justice, Ciaran Cuffe said that the Bill did not “go as far as ... I would like.” However, he added, “politics is the art of the possible and this Bill heads in the right direction to an end point on which I agree with many Deputies.”
Mr Cuffe also noted that there was considerable opposition to the Bill, saying that he had “received many letters and telephone calls from those not in favour of civil partnership and who do not wish to grant formal recognition to same-sex civil partnerships.”
Another Green Party TD, Paul Gogarty, while also welcoming the legislation, said that it did “not go far enough” adding that same sex marriage was “still very much on the agenda.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: CIN