Government urged to change law to recognise same-sex marriages

SAME-SEX marriages are a human right which the Government should change the law to recognise, students claimed yesterday.

Ahead of today’s landmark High Court hearing in which a lesbian couple are seeking recognition of their marriage in Canada, the Union of Students in Ireland staged a public celebration proclaiming the human right to marry.

While civil unions of gay and lesbian couples have recently been legislated for in Britain and other countries, USI president Colm Hamrogue said Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands recognise equal marriage rights as a human right for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

“Civil unions are different from marriage, but the whole point of human rights is that they are the same for every person. This is why civil unions do not suffice as an equivalent to marriage equality,” he said.

The union’s gay and lesbian spokesman, Steve Conlon, said equal marriage rights are enshrined in the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Denial of a human right brings misery to gay and lesbian people, so students expect the Irish Government to recognise the human right of all people to marry,” he said.

“We look forward to the Government putting equality at the heart of marriage law reform here in Ireland.”

Justice Minister Michael McDowell promised in May to initiate some form of legal recognition for cohabiting couples, including same-sex couples. While the anticipated civil partnership model is recognised as progress by campaigners, others want the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples which are already being provided elsewhere.

Dr Katherine Zappone and Dr Ann-Louise Gilligan will begin their action against the Revenue Commissioners, the State and the Attorney General in the High Court this morning.

They claim they were discriminated against by the Revenue when it refused to grant them married couples’ tax allowances, even though they were legally married in Canada in 2003.