Marriage Equality Referendum: Gay people should not pay price for improving the rights of children

I WAS sitting in a theatre the other night when the couple beside me started holding hands. Two men.

“Now for ye,” I thought. “Holding hands in the theatre!”

Let’s be clear. I grew up in a leftie house which was visited by gay couples. My closest friend is a gay man and I have brought him and his partner breakfast in bed. I am probably not much less gay-friendly than most gay people of my generation. But when I noticed two men holding hands beside me in the theatre I thought, “Now for ye. Holding hands in the theatre!” And then I thought, “their relationship could have the same status as mine under the Constitution” and I looked away.