Unionist politicians have defeated a Sinn Féin bid to create marriage equality for gay couples in Northern Ireland. The votes of the Democratic Unionist party and Ulster Unionist party in the Stormont Assembly helped defeat a Sinn Féin motion backed by the SDLP, Alliance and the Green party. But their defeat of the proposed bill sets the scene for a legal challenge in both the British and European courts against the continued ban on gay marriage in part of the UK. [Continue Reading]
Photo: Memorial service for gay rights activist, PA Mag Lochlainn
14 April 2013
Revd Chris Hudson, Dr Richard O’Leary and the Revd Mervyn Kingston at the memorial service for PA Mag Lochlainn, 14th April 2013, All Souls Church, Belfast. [Continue Reading]
Irish Independent: CoI group weighs in behind gay marriage
13 April 2013
A Church of Ireland pressure group says marriage should be extended to same-sex couples. Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI) has also said that children being raised by same-sex couples “need the protection of marriage”. The CAI, formed in 2007, has told the Irish Independent that it is “quite indignant” that it was not afforded the opportunity to make oral submissions at today’s Constitutional Convention, which is debating whether same-sex marriage should be voted on in a referendum. [Continue Reading]
Irish Examiner: Church and State – Division need not be destructive
3 April 2013
Another fault-line issue was raised when the chairman of the Catholic bishops’ Council for Marriage and the Family, Bishop Christopher Jones, reiterated his Church’s opposition to same-sex marriages. To muddy the waters further the Church of Ireland Changing Attitude Ireland group has strongly supported the extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples. Again this week lobby group Social Justice Ireland published a critique of Government economic policy suggesting that it is creating a fractured society, a weak economy and persistently high unemployment. SJI also warned that Ireland has seen the single biggest transfer of resources in history from low- and middle-income people to the rich and powerful. [Continue Reading]
