Church attacking gays as parents, says TD

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has been accused by a TD of trying to link marriage equality with adoption and parenting issues in a bid to portray gay people as potential paedophiles.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said elements in the No campaign, including the Church leadership, want to push the message that gay people “can’t be trusted” with children. Mr Boyd Barrett said the linking of the May referendum on extending civil marriage rights to same-sex couples with separate legislation in the Children and Family Relationships Bill on adoption and parenting was intended to create a link with paedophilia in the public mind.

“There is a nasty undercurrent of bigotry. They are trying to establish an association that, somehow, gay, lesbian and bisexual people can’t be trusted with kids,” Mr Boyd Barrett told the Irish Examiner.