The same-sex marriage referendum debate

[AZOffaly]

You left out the rest of the quote.

In fairness to you maybe I should have said 'It would nearly make me want to vote no to shove .....'

There's an element, a large element, of that sort of sneery shite creeping into this debate as the Yes side is very convinced they are going to win. I think it demeans their very just cause. But they have to understand that some people disagree, and will vote no, because of myriad reasons from religious to moral to economic or whatever. Just because they disagree doesn't make them 'morons'.

[muppet]

That Dan Higgins post was a poor contribution to the debate. And that's including the idea that it was meant to be a poor contribution to the debate.

Hang on a second.

Go back a bit on the thread where BennyCake reasonably asked if one can be against Gay-Marriage and not be a homophobe. I picked up on that and saw it as a fair question. Benny alluded to the sort of abuse a potential No voter is getting.

Part of the problem here is that we all react to the completely insane Fearon arguments (see the marrying a dog post) while not necessarily noticing the more moderate posts.

I thought about what BennyCake wrote and found the above. I posted it for balance. The 'You're a moron' line is exactly what he was talking about. I went further and compared it to the religious right rhetoric in the States, only the opposite.

Just because I am inclined to vote yes, doesn't mean I can't try to get into the heads of reasonable No voters.

Everything isn't black and white.

[AZOffaly]

Fearon is the equivalent. If you were minded to vote 'No', I'm sure he'd make you think twice about voting 'Yes'. Marrying dogs FFS.

[annapr]

Does this Fearon fella even have a vote?

[AZOffaly]

Nope, nor do a lot of other contributors on this forum. Having said that, they are Irish, and I think it's useful to hear their perspective as Irish people. When we reunite, they'll have to put up with all this too

[screenexile]

[AZOffaly]

But priests do. Why even go there? The Church is registered as a non-profit charity I think (no sniggering down the back). LGBT ireland might be an equivalent I suppose in that it provides services for Gay people in Ireland. Are they tax exempt?

Then you could say, the Church doesn't pay taxes, neither does LGBT (or maybe it does).
But Gay people pay taxes, and so do priests.

[Bingo]

They seem very happy.

[deiseach]

muppet, if you really posted that as an example of a off-the-wall Yes supporter, then fair enough. No doubt you thought, and still think, this was obvious. It wasn't.

[macdanger2]

What in legal / practical terms will be the difference between the current civil partnership and the new marriages? 

Will civil partnerships be no longer required once this is passed?

[Hardy]

Speaking of things that would make you change your vote just for spite ....

[muppet]

muppet, if you really posted that as an example of a off-the-wall Yes supporter, then fair enough. No doubt you thought, and still think, this was obvious. It wasn't.

I deliberately decided to post it without a comment, in hindsight that was a mistake. Apologies.

[deiseach]

There's a straight couple in Britain taking a case to be allowed access to having a civil partnership. It seems they didn't want "the social expectations, pressures and traditions surrounding marriage". They reminded me of a certain comic couple...

[Hardy]

What in legal / practical terms will be the difference between the current civil partnership and the new marriages? 

Will civil partnerships be no longer required once this is passed?

Under civil partnership, gays have inheritance rights, joint assessment for tax, etc.

Under gay marriage, they will have the right to abuse children, marry dogs, force good Catholics to commit sodomy, get condoms on the medical card, adopt piglets, dance naked in churches, make lewd suggestions to old ladies, evict married pensioners and take over their houses. Oh - and hold hands on buses.

[ziggysego]

Last night I was at the West Tyrone Decides debate in Omagh. In West Tyrone, we have 9 candidates standing for election, but Tom Buchanan of the DUP was a no-show.

The question came around to marriage equality and of course all eyes turned towards the Independent Susan-Anne White. She claimed that gay parents were 40% more likely to abuse their children. Of course there was outrage from the rest of the panel and the audience, people asking her to proves the states she was claiming. Instead, she named two gay people that allegedly abused children. They live internet feed was immediately cut due to legal reasons.

There was outcrys from everyone saying that two people do not amount to 40% increase within the gay community. When asked by Conor Keys, the chair of the debate, did she look into heterosexual child abuse cases. Susan-Anne just replied no, that doesn't matter. She said she was only concerned with gay child abuse cases.

Says it all really. Child abuse is child abuse. It does not matter what section of the community you belong to.