More on this fabulous European campaign and the organisations behind it.

My experience in Ireland has been that many lesbians are involved in work in the area of domestic violence but refuse to work on or acknowledge domestic violence in same sex relationships. But no all lesbians want to do is get married. There have been some changes but there is much more discussion, acknowledgement and action needed. Where would Irish based women experiencing domestic abuse from another woman go? (Garda LGBT Liaison officer list as of November 2011 is here - other suggestions in the comments please!)

Are we so insecure about our sexuality and identity that we have to rush out examples of ‘good’ families and fawn after them. I know I’ve even done this myself at times over the past 20 years.

Why are ‘good’ examples in response to the right’s vilification of queer parents sought as part of campaign strategies?  The construction of the same sex marriage narrative as an economic development tool often accompanies this message tethering people to each other and their state to the disadvantage of others.

Single lesbians and gay men and single heterosexuals raise ‘good’ children too.  But the ‘two is better than one’ and ‘two marrieds is even betterer’ (it’s my blog and I can make up words if I want to) message of the marriage for gays and lesbian movement gathers offensive moss.

Non church going,  non ring wearing, anti cake topping,  attachment parenting disrespectful, possibly fuck buddying queers are raising babies or not raising babies.  They even vote.  And if they don’t marry or raise a child (or proud pooch) in a long term relationship akin to long term heterosexual relationships that doesn’t mean we’re not equal or not worth identifying and respecting in and out of our communities.  Equality for all should mean more than a big day out or another emotional heart tugging video.

The couple were married in Spain and under the Civil Partnerships and Certain Rights of Cohabitants Act 2011 their marriage is recognised in Irish law.  When the act came into force an application was made to extend the travel pass to the spouse and was immediately granted by the Department of Social Protection.

Officials in Heuston Station (including the station master) did not seem to know that the law had changed.  In correspondence sent to me it was clear that distress had been caused to the passengers as they were trying to make their journey.  After a delay (and a missed train) permission was given to the passenger and his husband to travel.

He wasn’t going to refuse me and my husband to travel but that as far as he was concerned the policy of Irish Rail was that same-sex couples were not allowed to use a travel pass and he promptly passed the blame over to the Department of Social Welfare and Irish Rail for a failure to communicate.

A complaint was made to Irish Rail yesterday and a swift apology issued by spokesman Barry Kenny which acknowledged that the incident had taken place and that staff in the station were not aware that the rules had changed .

Readers may remember prior to Civil Partnership recognition that Irish Rail instructed its staff to prevent same sex couples from benefiting from free travel under spousal passes due to the Social Welfare Amendment Act 2004.  They even put notices up in the ticket checkers cabins on the matter.  The company said that this was not their instruction but implementation of the law from the Department of Social Welfare.  They repeated this in their apology yesterday and added that they hoped to be able to welcome the passenger and his husband on board their services in the future. Ironically the passengers had been returning from the LGBT Noise March for Marriage Equality when they attempted to make their journey.

All Iarnrod Eireann staff will be receiving information this week updating them on the changes in legislation regarding spousal travel passes and their application to same sex couples who are married or in civil partnerships.  Better late than never maybe but very unfortunate that it had to happen at all. I didn’t think I would be writing about travel passes and civil partnerships and same sex couples ever again.   If anyone sees this new circular stuck up in a cabin be a dear and take a pic and send it to me?  Thank you.

For Iarnrod Eireann staff and others who want to know more about Civil Partnerships and Social Welfare there is a useful publication from the Department of Social Protection available.

There is also a speech to be read by Senator Rónán Mullen if you are really into flagellation – you’ll be unsurprised to note that he has not changed his mind from when the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights of Cohabitation 2010 Bill was debated.

Then there’s also the bit where the Minister for State calls Senator Mullen a fundamentalist.

Deputy Brian Hayes: It does because it is a logical extension of what we passed in law. If we are suggesting that the tax treatment of civil partners should, by and large, be the same as the tax treatment of married couples, it follows, ipso facto, that this treatment of children of a civil partnership should also exist. That is the majority view in the context of this legislation which was passed last year. I only make these points to be helpful. The common will is to implement this legislation and, at the very least, give people protection in the tax code for their relationships. It would be nonsensical to enact legislation to give fundamental rights to civil partners, which excluded the tax code as part of it.

 

Senator Rónán Mullen: That is creeping in again.

 

Deputy Brian Hayes:I am not a fundamentalist, unlike the Senator.

 

Senator Rónán Mullen:The Minister of State might wish to withdraw that comment, on reflection.

 

Deputy Brian Hayes:If it is the view, which I suspect it is, that the support is there for the civil partnership legislation, it logically follows that the support should be there for these tax changes. We will have an opportunity next Tuesday to go through this in greater detail.

 

Senator Rónán Mullen:On a point of order, I ask the Minister of State to withdraw that comment, if he does not mind. I know he probably said it in jest, but it was about me being a fundamentalist, if I heard him correctly.

 

Deputy Brian Hayes:I apologise.

 

Senator Rónán Mullen:I do not think he really meant that, did he?

 

Deputy Brian Hayes:No, I did not mean that at all.

 

Senator Rónán Mullen:I just wanted to put that on the record.

 

Deputy Brian Hayes:It just popped out, as these things do sometimes.

 

Senator Rónán Mullen:It was a pun of a kind.

 

Deputy Brian Hayes:  I apologise to Senator Mullen.

It just popped out eh?

The Bill passed the second stage without a vote and will enter committee stage on Tuesday 19 July.

The Bill seeks to revise the tax codes which are affected by the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights of Cohabitants Act 2010.  One clause of the bill will give a child whose parents are in a civil partnership the same rights as a child whose parents are married – this means that children of civil partners will be treated the same for inheritance tax as children of a married couple

You can read the debate here.

There was overwhelming positivity in the debate with a few mentions of farmers and the lack of information and consideration on matters of cohabitation. Of particular note is the contribution of John Lyons, (Labour, Dublin North West).  One of two out gay men in the Oireachtas, Deputy Lyons refers to the significance of his election and the major changes there have been in Irish society since 1993.

The Bill will allow registered civil partners to receive the same tax treatment as married couples in respect of income tax, stamp duty, capital acquisitions tax, capital gains tax and VAT.

In addition, the Bill allows for the taxation consequences of the redress scheme for opposite-sex and same-sex cohabiting couples provided for in the 2010 Act.

On publication of the Bill, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan T.D., said:

“The previous Government committed to introducing the changes to tax legislation to implement the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. This was not possible during their term of office due to the early general election but I am now publishing the Finance (No. 3) Bill 2011.

This Bill was published separately from the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011 as it implements changes that go right through the tax system and will require detailed consideration.”

Last year after trialling a question on the issue the Central Statistics Office decided not to ask at all because people were confused. Maybe they didn’t ask the right question. Now the law has been changed (since JULY last year) and people are in legally recognised relationships and are very very confused at the advice they are being given. The CSO are telling people who are in civil partnerships that they should tick the marriage box. This despite everyone knowing that Civil Partnership is not Marrage and same sex marriage obtained abroad not being recognised as marriage here.  This is really stupid and a huge fail on the part of the CSO. (They’ve not done well on the religion/no religion bit either).

GLEN have produced advice to same sex couples on how to ensure their relationship type/status is counted.

However I won’t engage in trying to change the mind of someone who is against it or engage in vilifying her.  It’s not worth the hassle.  Neither is it worth making someone a martyr.

I think Lucinda Creighton should be left alone and that those living in Dublin South East who are concerned should vote for someone else who they agree with and agrees with them.  (This issue would not be the only thing worrying me about supporting her  if I lived in Dublin South East by the way; anti choice, anti secularisation etc. )

It’s not only Lucinda Creighton who feels that marriage is only for straight people who can make babies. Fine Gael have since 2005 believed that marriage is not for gays and many in the party would not support children having rights to their non biological parents and vice versa.  It must be acknowledged that several members of the party spoke in favour of the issue of children’s rights during the debates on the Civil Partnership legislation.  But the issue is not in the manifesto and Enda Kenny has spoken twice on the matter during the campaign and said that it is not party policy to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.   No matter how much Fine Gael say Lucinda is on her own they actually generally agree with her!

So if this is a hot button issue for you then this is about who you vote for on Friday and not about attacking a candidate for her views.  Because she’s not going to change her mind.  And change is about using your head to vote and get others to vote rather than wasting your time making a candidate look like a martyr because she’s probably enjoying it.

Fianna Fáil -  Nil

Fine Gael – No policy section on LGBT issues,

Party does not support civil marriage for same sex couples (checked via email)

Civil Partnership: We will amend tax law in a second Finance Act in 2011 to give effect to the rights for civil partners and cohabiting couples introduced in the Civil Partnership Act 2010.

Anti-bullying Policy: We will encourage schools to develop anti-bullying policies and in particular, strategies to combat homophobic bullying to support students.

Labour

LGBT rights

• Labour is committed to holding a referendum to provide for constitutional recognition of samesex marriage. Labour also supports entitling all parties to a marriage or civil partnership to apply to adopt a child, while ensuring that all adoption decisions must be made in the best long-term interests of the child. In the immediate term, Labour will enact provisions to extend the tax benefits of marriage to same sex couples in civil partnerships.
• Labour is committed to ensuring all publicly funded colleges operate in accordance with the constitutional right to Freedom of Conscience.
• Labour will ensure the five teaching colleges introduce a Freedom of Conscience clause so that trainee teachers no longer are obliged to undergo compulsory religious education.
• Labour will amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Acts (1998) and (2004) to end discrimination against LGBT teachers and trainee teachers, and to ensure that there is no obstacle to schools tackling homophobic bullying.
• Labour will continue to fund Gay HIV Strategies.
• Labour will advance equality for trans-gender people by enacting gender recognition legislation, and by extending to them protections afforded by existing equality legislation.

Green Party

Same-sex couples

The Green Party will:

• In the event of the Supreme Court ruling against Zappone and Gilligan, seek to have the Constitution amended to permit civil same-sex marriage.

• Seek to further reform family law in Ireland to protect the welfare of children in a variety of families, including providing for the extension of legal guardianship to de facto parents.

• Ensure the continuation of the HSE-National Office of Suicide Prevention LGBT Mental Health Programme.

Sinn Féin

Legislation to permit and recognise same-sex marriage. Provide full and equal recognition of all civil partnerships in law.

A review of general equality and human rights proposals will follow shortly

On Friday Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, was speaking on the Finance Bill which was before the Seanad. He explained the matter of the non inclusion of measures pertaining to Civil Partnership in the bill thus

The Bill embodies the various budgetary measures but it also contains other provisions, as finance Bills necessarily do. However, it does not include all the matters which would have been contained in the original Finance Bill. Indeed, the question of civil partnership, which was agitated here during the year as well, arose on the Finance Bill because the solemnisation of civil partnerships begins from 1 April this year and it would have been desirable to have had a finance Bill clarifying the tax status of these relationships in advance of that. Work was far advanced in my Department on preparing the necessary amendments which involved 150 statutory provisions to give effect to that. However, as it happens, it will not be possible in the limited time available to us to table those amendments and while I am sure some Senators will breathe a sigh of relief that the matter will not be freshly agitated in Seanad Éireann, it seems undesirable with the status now coming into force on 1 April and that those who contract accordingly do not have clarity about their tax status.

Senator Mary M. White: We swept it through the Seanad.

Deputy Brian Lenihan: The different parties can deal with that. It was extraordinary that the Green Party, which made such an effort at pushing the question, could not find it in its heart to give the Government another week or two to arrange for that. These are matters of political consideration. They are not matters relating to the Finance Bill.

Didn’t the Green Party withdraw from government because of the shenanigans that was Cowen trying to replace 6 ministers in his cabinet 2 months before an election was due to take place and they had enough? Also after the discussions between all parties to arrange the debate on the Finance Bill Joan Burton reported that the minister said that the sections on the bill would not be ready for another month. And of course the Minister’s department had 6 months to get the legislation ready!

I’m not a defender of the Green Party but I called electioneering spoofery when I heard this from Lenihan. The Greens were not so happy either as you might imagine given that they are claiming credit for the legislation.

Dan Boyle responded in the debate

I am disappointed with one thing the Minister said in respect of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. He intimated that if the Green Party had given this Government another two to three weeks of artificial life, the measures in respect of that Act would have been brought into the Bill. I understand that at the meeting of all party spokespersons a few days ago, it was commonly accepted that the 150 amendments relating to the Act can be introduced in the finance (No.2) Bill, which can be passed before 1 April. I would like to see every political party commit to that. I welcome the fact that the Minister said he was surprised at the Green Party being seen in this position as the Green Party had pushed most strongly for the civil partnership legislation. This is something I did not hear from the relevant Minister at the time when he was finishing the debate on the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010.

Later the deputy leader of the Green Party, Mary White, issued a statement also rejecting the ministers assertions and had a dig at Dermot Ahern while she was at it.

“For Minister Lenihan to imply that it is our fault that the taxation provisions on civil partnership will have to be brought in after the election is a complete mischaracterisation of the situation,” she added.

“Minister Lenihan knows that as soon as the Green Party entered government, we immediately began engagement with the Department of Justice, of which he was then Minister, to progress the issue of Civil Partnership.

“We have always felt that the bill could have been progressed much more quickly, but that there was a reluctance in the Department of Justice, particularly after Minister Lenihan left, to prioritise the legislation,”

There you go gays, do you feel special? Not sure if the queers will be held up as a rowing matter again in the election campaign but it will be 4 weeks long so you never know.

The Green Party by the way have sent copy of their advertisement for the civil partnership edition of GCN as further proof of their committment.

More anon on the various election manifestos pertaining to equality as they are launched.