Well done Ireland.

[P J]

Hats off to you.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32858501

[Dizzy]

I've nothing at all against same sex marriages as each to their own but it does sort of annoy me in a way. 

First there were Civil Partnerships for same sex couples which allowed more equality [in law] re rights and responsibilities almost matching those of opposite sex marriages and now there are same sex marriages which match opposite sex marriages. Fair enough.

So when are the government etc going to wake up and give the same rights etc to people who have lived together for over a certain number of years and who have bought homes together, raised families together but haven't got that little piece of paper ?
 

Doesn't seem fair to me......

[Freeborn John]

The Irish know which way their breads buttered, as was demonstrated when they kicked against the Lisbon treaty and suddenly found themselves short of European funding, they know they can either bend over for it or else wave goodbye to all that lovely EU cash...

[Dizzy]

The Irish know which way their breads buttered, as was demonstrated when they kicked against the Lisbon treaty and suddenly found themselves short of European funding, they know they can either bend over for it or else wave goodbye to all that lovely EU cash...

Sorry and I know I really shouldn't be laughing at that bit :oops:

[fugtifino]

So when are the government etc going to wake up and give the same rights etc to people who have lived together for over a certain number of years and who have bought homes together, raised families together but haven't got that little piece of paper ?

 

I think that's a different issue, Diz. This is about people who do want that piece of paper but are denied it because the law thinks there's something wrong with their bits and it's all their own fault, or something.

 

But yeah, well done the Irish.

[Bazj]

While watching the coverage on Sky News it sort of struck me that in order to be Gay in Ireland you either had to have dyed hair (Blue being the popular colour) a beard of sorts and lots of piercings.... 

 

Good result but why do they all have to look so strange? :)

[P J]

Sounds very like a programme I recently watched about 80's punk rockers BazJ

[Bazj]

But punk rock fashion was just that...fashion.... thankfully most of us grew out of it...although I do still have the jacket..... but it is staying in the closet!!

[P J]

I think that the fashion you describe above is just that too. You wore punk clothes to identify yourself as being of a particular group,  I am sure that some in the LGBT community do the same. I think its great that they can.

[asperity]

I have to wonder why governments (and religions when it comes to it) feel the need to legislate about people's sexuality in the first place. It smells of petty meddling in people's private lives and actually causes more problems than it solves. If it doesn't harm anybody else why should there have to be legislation controlling people's affairs in the first place?

[luasredline]

As an Irish citizen, I can only applaud the outcome of this affair.  As the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau famously remarked, the government of a country has no place in people's bedrooms.  Only he said it in French, but that was the gist of it.  The Catholic Church in Ireland, I understand, tried to bring pressure to bear on their congregations to vote against, and I hope the outcome sends a powerful message to that church - that its day is over.

[Davy51]

Although i don't  subscribe to that particular leaning i think the whole idea of being able to love & live with who you like is probably the greatest freedom known to man or woman. For thousands of years the sanctity of religious doctrine has made this impossible & forced many marriages of convenience onto couples who didn't want to be together but had to do the right thing then lived out their lives in a loveless misery. The realisation that the church is not always the bastion of morality that it sets out to be has helped to open closet doors worldwide.

 

On a downside though,has the LGBT campaign started to run out of steam & should its disproportionate crusade be scaled back. I don't think it is necessary that their agenda should push their goals down the throats of the generally tolerant greater public . To me it seems that the campaign is, & has been for many years, too "in yer face ".

[Robbo]

Elton John has just decide that his husband is to be called 'his wife' and is also to be known as the 'mother' to his adopted kid.

 

 

[luasredline]

This is where we Irish have the advantage.  In Dublin, your wife is usually referred to as your ould wan.  Non gender specific, you see.

[asperity]

In Geordieland they call the wife "man"don't they?