Gays and lesbians in adoption rights plea
Gay and lesbians want the right to adopt children under proposed new civil partnerships, it emerged today.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has set up a working group to examine the issue of civil partnerships for Irish couples, after the first gay wedding in Britain was held at Belfast City Hall yesterday.
The Gay, Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) said its members wanted a civil marriage with the same rights and responsibilities as same sex couples.
“We believe this is the last measure to finally declare that lesbians and gay men are full and equal citizens with all the rights and responsibilities that everyone else has,” said chairman Kieran Rose.
He said this included the right for gay and lesbian people to adopt children.
“Either we are full equal citizens or we are less than full equal citizens. We are not arguing for special rights. They (gay and lesbian parents) would be as good or as bad as heterosexual parents.”
The group met with Mr McDowell in Dublin today to discuss civil marriage and immigration for partners of gay and lesbian people.
Mr McDowell denied that the Government had been slow to act on civil marriages, saying that he had to wait for the imminent report of All Party Committee on the Constitution and another on the rights of co-habiting couples from the Law Reform Commission.
“There are options as to whether we have a civil partnership or not, what kind of civil partnerships there can be, are they marriage analogues or are they different? Are they only for gay and lesbian people, or are they available for co-habiting heterosexual people and for people who have no sexual dimension to their relationship at all. These are issues the working group will have to work on,” he said.
The working group is due to report by next March.
The historic marriage between Shannon Sickels and Gráinne Close at Belfast City Hall yesterday attracted protests from the Free Presbyterian Church and others.
But Mr McDowell said he believed that ’old-fashioned attitudes’ to the issue in the Irish Republic had moderated quite a bit.
“We were discussing that inside and our view was that the centre of gravity in Ireland has shifted. The world didn’t end yesterday in Belfast. The Irish people know that being fair to everyone in the community is good for everyone in the community,” he said.
The Government has given an extra €100,000 to GLEN to fund the hiring of a research and policy officer. It has also agreed to introduce a family re-unification protocol next April, which will make it easier for gay and lesbian people to bring partners in from other countries.
GLEN chief executive Keith O’Malley said gay and lesbian people often travelled and socialised abroad to meet partners due to the limited size of the Irish gay community.
