Gays and Marriage: What about the children?

The new civil partnership laws will see gay and lesbian relationships finally recognized by law. But why is the new legislation silent on the subject of gay adoption?

Valerie Flynn, 27 Apr 2010

“I suspect that if you were pregnant and uncertain and you knew there was a possibility that your baby could go to Miss Panti and his boyfriend, you would think again about adoption.”

So said Sunday Times columnist Brenda Power on Today FM last July. And you might say that as arguments go, well, it has a certain emotive force.

Brenda was discussing a column she had written about the 2009 LGBTQ Pride march in Dublin, during which Pride participants had dressed in half-complete wedding costumes to highlight perceived deficiencies in the new Civil Partnership Bill. She had been dismissive of the protest, arguing that “marriage is a legal and religious union between a man and a woman.” Which is how a lot of Irish people still seem to see it. But is that an adequate response to what is often a very human dilemma, for example when a married woman realises that she’s gay and forms a same sex relationship?

For the moment, that traditional view will prevail. The new Civil Partnership Bill, due to come into force in June, doesn’t give same-sex couples any rights in relation to children – and in this regard it is unlikely to be altered. According to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), that is its major deficiency. Unsurprisingly, Rory O’Neill (aka Miss Panti) agrees.

However, it does grant marriage-type rights in a number of other areas where same-sex couples are, at present, legally strangers to each other. For instance, same-sex couples can now be treated like married couples when it comes to taxation, succession rights, property rights, and maintenance payments after separation, if one partner was financially dependent on the other. It also gives the right to have a say in your partner’s health if he or she become seriously ill.

For campaigners like O’Neill, these practical provisions are welcome. “A lot of gay couples need solutions now and this will solve a lot of problems,” he says. That said, he objects fiercely to the principle of enacting a special type of union for gay people.

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