MARRIAGE EQUALITY TODAY spoke out against the comments made by Cardinal Seán Brady on RTÉ Radio yesterday in relation to children of gay and lesbian couples.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1′s This Week yesterday afternoon, Brady said a union between a man and woman was “the most favourable position in which children can be reared”.
“We feel that to call it ‘gay marriage’ is, in fact, to weaken the traditional notion of marriage which is so important to society,” Brady said.
Commenting on the cardinal’s remarks, Director of Marriage Equality Moninne Griffith said the lack of recognition for children with gay and lesbian parents can mean they have less protections and opportunities as other children.
“They already exist and ignoring the precarious legal situation they and their families are in because their parents cannot get married isn’t right or fair,” she said. “Inequality has no place in modern Ireland.”
Marriage Equality said its 2010 report looking at the experiences of children of same sex couples highlighted how the lack of legal recognition affected their lives.
“What mattered most to the children involved in the study was that their family relationships be recognised and protected, and that no other generation of children with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parents be discriminated against,” Griffith said.
Some 73 per cent of people in Ireland support marriage equality according to Marriage Equality. Griffith said the organisation looked forward to engaging with the upcoming Constitutional Convention, which will be looking at the issue of marriage equality.
“The Irish people, including TDs, government ministers and local authorities, have all agreed, the time for marriage equality is now,” she said.
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