‘Real lives’ behind debate on marriage

The same-sex marriage debate should revolve around real names and faces instead of labels and categories, a Church of Ireland bishop and advocate of gay marriage has said.

Paul Colton, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, said that too much in the debate on the May referendum so far had failed to put human experience into the picture.

Although the Church of Ireland bishops have not made any collective statement on the question of allowing civil marriage for same-sex couples, Bishop Colton has been an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues.