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Equal Rights For All, Not Apartheid Law

25/08/10

Last Sunday [August 22], members of éirígí marched through the streets of Baile Átha Cliath in a display of solidarity with the LGBT community, to support their demand to be treated as equal citizens in the Twenty-Six County state.

The march was organised by the LGBT Noise Campaign, whose objective is to work for “the provision of civil marriage for all people in Ireland, irrespective of gender and sexual orientation”.

Nearly 3,000 people gathered at City Hall and proceeded to march to the Twenty-Six County Department of Justice on Stephen’s Green, many equipped with coloured cards containing the definition of the word ‘Equal’. Outside the Department headquarters, speakers, including Anna McCarthy [LGBT Noise], Colm O’Gorman [Amnesty International Ireland] and Grainne Healy [Marriage Equality], highlighted the injustices being committed against the gay community.

Speakers highlighted the fact that the denial of the right to civil marriage, while not only denying gay couples the usual financial and civil securities that straight couples are entitled to, also denies legal rights to children. Are such children even recognised in the Twenty-Six County state, or are they seen as abominations by the same state that refuses to grant their parents legal rights to them?

Anna McCarthy referred to James Connolly and his support for equal opportunities for all the citizens of Ireland. She then went on to quote the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, which the Dublin government has ignored time and again in its treatment of Irish citizens. The following quote from the Proclamation reveals the hypocrisy of those who claim that the Twenty-Six County state is founded upon such a document:

“The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts…”

Max Krzyzanowski of LGBT Noise said: “The Civil Partnership Bill, which was signed into law on July 19, was a step towards equal rights for same-sex couples. But it doesn't give them the right to marry, leaving children of same-sex couples without the same rights as children of heterosexual parents.

“We have always sought the opening of the institution of civil marriage so that same-sex couples can raise children with the same protections as their straight brothers and sisters.”

Krzyzanowski continued: “There are 300 rights that accrue to heterosexual married couples that are missing from civil partnership legislation. This is unacceptable in 2010 when country after country around the world is opening the institution of civil marriage to their gay citizens.”

Another speaker drew attention the fact that the vast majority of secondary and primary schools in the Twenty-Six Counties are explicitly catholic in their ethos, meaning that gay teachers are officially subject to dismissal for not conferring to the school’s ethos.

éirígí spokesperson Ursula Ní Shionnain, who took part in the march, said: “It is no surprise to éirígí to see such intolerance from a capitalist state whose primary objective is the bail out of banks and property developers at the expense of the rights of all working class citizens.

“This state has, from its inception, been in the control of right-wing, conservative elements, and only the destruction of this state will open the door to complete equality.”

Ní Shionnain continued: “For too long, the LGBT community in the Twenty-Six County state has been treated as second class citizens. People are being denied the rights promised to them in the Twenty-Six County Constitution because of their sexual orientation.

“éirígí is committed to supporting the Irish LGBT community in its struggle to secure equality both in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of their fellow citizens.”

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