Sinn Féin: Don’t use same-sex marriage no vote to give Coalition a ‘bloody nose’
Launching their campaign for a yes vote for next month’s referendum, party leader Gerry Adams said the constitutional change should be supported on its own merits.
With just five weeks until polling day, groups on both sides are ramping up their campaigns.
Sinn Féin said friends, workmates and families could participate in a campaign to encourage others to vote yes.
“In respect of the marriage equality referendum, many of us will have a member of our family or extended family who is gay.
“All of us, whatever age we are or wherever we live or work, know someone who is gay,” Mr Adams said.
The party will produce 5,000 posters and launch a number of regional events to get the yes vote out.
Deputy party leader Mary Lou McDonald yesterday appealed to her party supporters and voters not to oppose the referendum out of frustration with the Government: “I’d be asking people not to see this referendum as an opportunity to give this Government a bloody nose, to support it on its own merits.”
Following recent opinion polls which show the overwhelming support on the yes side may be soft, Ms McDonald said that there was no room for complacency.
Speaking at Sinn Féin’s launch, South Dublin mayor Fintan Warfield, a member of the LGBT community, said a yes vote would help people come to terms with their sexuality in schools or in GAA clubs.
The party is also supporting a yes vote to reduce the age of presidential candidates from 35 to 21.
Labour and Fine Gael will not launch their marriage equality campaigns until the end of the month,
while Fianna Fáil intend to announce its plans to support the constitutional change shortly.
Former president Mary McAleese has said that Ireland owes it to people who were “pushed into the shadows” or died by suicide due to outdated views on homosexuality to back the yes vote.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
