Referendum an opportunity to right a wrong based on sexual orientation

When the idea of a Marriage Equality Referendum was first mooted a furore erupted indicating the need for legislation for the protection of children.

This was a curious reaction given the horrendous manner in which children had been treated, for decades, in religiously run schools, colleges and institutions without a murmur from anybody by way of protest.

That this same period wreaked of misogyny and other forms of discrimination against the downtrodden and the marginalised did not seem to bother anybody now, is difficult to fathom.

The marriage equality referendum represents an opportunity to right another one of these wrongs. Ostracising countless numbers of people because of their sexual orientation was without justification. Somerset Maugham once expressed the view that “there is hardly anybody alive whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, that would not fill the world with surprise and horror.”

Given this honest assessment of human sexuality generally, who can vote ‘No’ in the forthcoming referendum without engaging in self deception?

Moreover, a ‘No’ vote would be to tell countless numbers of people that we do not love them and that we refuse to create the conditions in which they can love each other.

Pat Daly

Midleton

Co Cork