Campaigners for equal marriage rights in the forthcoming referendum should not rely solely on political parties, but should mobilise other groups in civil society to campaign on the issue, a minister has advised.
Minister for State at the Department of Health Kathleen Lynch told a public meeting in Cork last night that successive governments have had a patchy record on winning referendums in recent years.
She cited the results of Nice 1, Lisbon 1, the abortion referendum in 2002, the Oireachtas Inquiries referendum and the Seanad abolition referendum, which were all defeated, while the Children's Rights and Fiscal Treaty referendums were only with narrow majorities.
“Politics and politicians are not very popular at the minute . . . Yes the main political parties are supportive of this issue and will mobilise in support of it, but they cannot be expected to carry the argument on their own,” she told the meeting on marriage equality, organised by gay rights activists.
Mobilised and prepared
“It is important that other groups – both inside and outside the LGBT community – are mobilised and prepared to actively campaign on this issue,” said Ms Lynch.
Recent opinion polls have showed up to 75 per cent of Irish people favour marriage equality, but campaigners should be prepared for this level of support to become less solid once issues such as parental rights, adoption and children are introduced into the equation, she said.
Ms Lynch said campaigners should focus on middle Ireland as it "will not be won in the large cities and Dublin 4" but by convincing middle Ireland, who are generally conservative and put off by extremes, and in that regard it was important the debate was kept free of hysteria.
Airtime split
Cork South Central TD and founder member of the
Fine Gael
LGBT Group
Jerry Buttimer
told the meeting entitled
How to Win a Referendum
:“The majority of groups and political parties and will support the referendum, but because of the interpretation applied to court rulings, the airtime will be split 50/50 between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’,” he said.
It was important, therefore, to say early on what the referendum is about and more importantly what it is not about.
The meeting, which was organised by GLEN (Gay Lesbian Equality Network) in co-operation with The Cork Gay Project, LINC (Lesbians in Cork) and Marriagequality as part of Cork Pride LGBT Pride Festival 2014, also heard from Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada.
She said the forthcoming Children and Family Relations Bill was important as it would clarify that LGBT couples have the same adoption rights as heterosexual couples and she believed that would make the marriage equality referendum less complicated.
