This article is from page 9 of the 2007-11-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
SOME of Clare’s most famous tourist landmarks could be used as locations for civil unions for gay and lesbian couples before the end of next year. Following a relaxation of the laws in relation to civil ceremonies, which came into effect yesterday, locations such as the Cliffs of Moher and even the Poulnabrone Dolmen are now free to host civil ares eOy Nee SUE COVuebeetoel have also commit- ted to putting in place legislation legalising — civil unions between same sex couples in 2008, follow- ing the defeat of a private members OJON MO) MEU elemnIUlo) (ore
put forward by Labour in the Dail ETM ioe)
“We are very pleased the Labour party brought a civil partnership bill back to the Dail last week and we welcome it as a major step forward that it is now part of the Government agenda to have legislation in place by March of next year,” said a spokes- person from the Gay Clare Group who asked to remain anonymous.
“We hope that this will be wide ranging legislation and not just to cover tax issues. It needs to tackle joint legal protection rights for gay parents and social welfare and will be enacted very quickly.”
The Labour Bill was defeated in the
Dail last week following fears that it would be deemed unconstitutional as a result of it’s reference to marriage rather than civil unions.
“Gay partnership would be fine as long as their rights are the same as married couple. The word marriage is achurch word more than anything else. We would just look to have the same legal status as married couples
and the word isn’t
important. We
would look to hav-
ing civil unions
or civil partner-
ships,’ continued
the spokesperson.
“At the moment
a lot of lesbians
have children so
it would be im-
portant for them
that this new bill
would give them
some sort of joint
legal protection.
So if, for exam-
ple, they are ina
partnership with children and some-
thing happens to one of the lesbians,
the other would be able to have cus- tody of the children.
‘That would be the initial step at the moment. The issue of gay adop- tion 1s something that could come farther down the line.”
There has been a huge growth in the number of civil marriages in Ireland over the past decade. In 1995, only one in every 10 couples married in a registry office while now the figure is more than one in five, with 22 per cent of all weddings now non-church events.