Monday, March 22, 2010 Previous editions
Saturday, June 27, 2009
CONSIDERING it is only 16 years since homosexual acts were decriminalised in Ireland, yesterday’s publication of the Civil Partnership Bill granting legal recognition to same-sex relationships must set some sort of speed record for legislation reflecting social change.
Yet it is understandable why gay and lesbian rights groups and equality campaigners are disappointed that the bill, a landmark document though it is, doesn’t go further and grant full marriage entitlements.
Having taken such a significant step towards equality for all committed couples, they argue, why stop so agonisingly short of capturing the prize?
The emphasis of the bill – on regulating financial affairs between partners – is hugely important. For too long, partners who have shared everything in life have been treated as strangers by the Revenue Commissioners and welfare officials.
There have been heart-breaking examples of bereaved partners losing entitlement to the home they shared with a loved one who died suddenly, or of being excluded from receiving death benefits or legacies.
In relationships where one partner is the chief breadwinner or one becomes carer to the other, sexual orientation has been a very crude instrument with which to decide that the normal rules on tax credits, dependency allowances and other supports do or don’t apply.
But focusing mainly on financial and fiscal matters reinforces some of the most keenly felt differences between married couples and couples who are married in all but law.
Because a civil partnership is not a marriage, it will not enjoy the same protections granted to married people under the Constitution. Neither will it confer adoption rights to the partners, any children in the relationship or any children the partners might wish to bring into the relationship.
Hence a child who is the biological or legally adopted offspring of one partner and the much loved de facto offspring of the other can be left in limbo if the former dies or departs the relationship.
The issue of same-sex parenting is undoubtedly more sensitive than same-sex partnerships, even in a modern society, but the reality is the two are inextricably linked and in that regard, the commendably speedy legislation still needs to step up a gear.
The bill does go some of the way to recognising that relationships between partners means more than clarity on money matters. For example, it extends the protections for spouses under the Domestic Violence Acts to registered civil partners.
In that way – and also in providing for maintenance payments and attachment of earnings where partnerships break down – it rightly imposes responsibilities on civil partners as well as granting them rights.
As a first step, it’s a realistic and respectful – if restricted – piece of legislation but in opening a half-door to equality of treatment for committed couples, the Government must know the job will not be complete until the entrance is cleared.
A lot has changed in 16 years but it is unlikely that the voice of those at the heart of those changes will be content to stay quiet for 16 more.
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