Ireland Okays Gay and Lesbian Civil Unions

Taking a great step forward, another European nation has leapfrogged gay civil rights in the United States.  According to the Irish Times, planned legislation for "civil unions or weddings will have the same legal recognition as new civil partnerships in Ireland, as long as they meet a number of conditions."

Thanks to Tony Grew at pinknews.co.uk for bringing this to our attention.

Though it's not full-fledged gay marriage, legislation will be brought up this Spring that will recognize gay marriages and civil partnerships performed for gay and lesbian Irish couples in other countries, and would grant most of the rights of marriage to same sex couples.

Granting actual marriage to gay and lesbian couples would require a change in the Irish constitution, which currently bans gay marriage in that country.

So here we have another heavily Catholic country offering more civil rights to gay and lesbian couples than our own supposedly secular government.  Spain did it too!

And what's more, 53% of Ireland supports gay marriage, as opposed to approximately 45% here.

Could that have anything to do with the concerted right-wing effort to use gays as a wedge issue here in the US, stirring up hatred and fear among the oft-mentioned "base"?

Many folks here in the US have bought the big lie, that gay marriage is about shoving man on man sex (or, as Santorum famously put it, man on dog) down the throats of the American Public.  Funny, though, how most of the folks peddling this nonsense are straight white men.  How much experience have they had with actually being gay?

I came out to my friends and family at 22, and met my life partner at 23.  We've been together ever since, going on 16 years now.

In the "normal" course of things, I would have met a pretty girl, dated her for a couple years, then popped the question - and had my friends, family, and the state supporting my relationship.

In real life, I met a cute boy instead.  And the family and friends are there and ready to support us.  But we're still waiting for the Federal Government to catch up.

I could go on and on about the thousands of rights and responsibilities that come with actual marriage - hey, it's been done before, ad nauseum.  But instead,  I want to address this on a more personal level.

Beyond all the political stuff, I want to marry Mark because of the funny little smile he shows me when I make him laugh.

I want to marry him because of the way his shoulders shrug in delight when I give him a back-rub, and because of the way he listens when I have an idea, as if I am the only other person in the world, and because he knows I like my grande frappucino with two pumps of peppermint and no whipped cream.

I want to marry him because he "gets" Arrested Development, and because he likes to order cheese plates before dinner, and because he's learning Italian with me for our next trip to Rome.

And let me set the record straight.  I don't need marriage to define our relationship - we've done a great job of that ourselves over the last 16 years.

But if marriage is such a great institution, as even the opponents of gay marriage admit, why continue to deny its inherent support of a loving relationship to my partner and I?  Denying marriage to gay couples and then chastising them for not being committed enough stinks of the rankest hypocrisy.

So hurray to the government of Ireland for taking an historic first step.  And fingers crossed that our own government isn't too far behind.

--Scott