Government agree to give gay man free travel

ixoy

Here's a bit of "breaking" news from today's Irish Independent :

A gay pensioner has won the right to have a Free Travel Pass issued to his partner.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs had initially refused to issue it. When the Equality Authority intervened, the Department agreed to issue the pass to his partner, and both men received €1,500 in compensation. The Department is now reviewing the Free Travel scheme to ensure it complies with the Equal Status Act. Niall Crowley of the Equality Authority says the settlement has ramifications for other Departments and public bodies.

At least it's a step in the right direction. How about some tax breaks for couples while you're at? However they may have an uphill struggle against a lot of ignorant prats, if this article (also in today's paper) is anything to go by:

NEARLY half the Irish Catholics polled believe that homosexuality is morally wrong and people in gay relationships should not be allowed marry in a Catholic church, an RTE/MRBI poll will reveal tonight.

..

The poll, commissioned for RTE's Prime Time, questioned 1,000 people, 90pc of whom were Catholic, on their attitudes to the Catholic Church.

Of course there's no indication of age/location/profiles there but it's not a good thing Stupid retarded country and backward religions :mad:

De Rebel

Originally posted by ixoy
Government agree to give gay man free travel

Excellent news. A foot in the door and a great precedent. Fair dues to the old guys for taking a stand.

Originally posted by ixoy
NEARLY half the Irish Catholics polled believe that homosexuality is morally wrong and people in gay relationships should not be allowed marry in a Catholic church, an RTE/MRBI poll will reveal tonight.........................Stupid retarded country and backward religions

Don't be too hard on the country! Another way of looking at this is that OVER HALF of Irish Catholics thumb their noses at the Catholic Church and its dogma and believe that homosexuality is NOT morally wrong and people in gay relationships SHOULD be allowed marry in a Catholic church

That’s a definite improvement on times past and shows that the people of this country are at long last thinking independently and developing their own morality instead of accepting the Vatican's position. Not quite where we need to be, but it indicates once again that public opinion is well ahead of the powers that be and that there is hope for change in the future.

tendofan

True, though the "Agree/Disagree" style of poll questioning doesn't allow for much in the way of a nuanced response either though. Okay, so it's anecdotal, but I know a lot of people who are of the opinion that homosexuality is not morally wrong in any way, and have no problem with having blessing rituals, but who would shy away from the use of the word 'marriage.'

Tendofan.
"Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that."

ixoy

Indeed I don't know anyone who would be morally opposed. I think even if were to use the term "civil union" or some such, there'd be a lot more support. But AFAIK the Government went on record about a week ago saying they had no plans to implement any changes in regards to this. Well guess who's getting no votes from me then.

oneweb

NEARLY half the Irish Catholics polled believe that homosexuality is morally wrong and people in gay relationships should not be allowed marry in a Catholic church

If that was the exact question posed to the people, then I wouldn't find anything surprising about the result.
Surely a gay couple wanting to get married in the building of a religion which opposes homosexuality is nothing short of hypocritical

If the question was "should people in gay relationships be allowed to be register their partnership" full stop (or something like that), then I'm sure the response in favour would have greater.

Anyway ixoy, you're looking at it with the wrong perspective IMO. It's a good thing that around half of the people accept homosexual marriage. Goes to show that things are getting better.

De Rebel

"blessing rituals" "marriage" "civil union"

These are very different things.

The key issue for the majority of people should be civil union. This is about property and inheretence rights, rights of access to your partner, legal recognition of of the partnership, and equality in the taxation and social welfare codes. The civil law needs to be changed to reflect the reality of today's partnerships and give full legal weight to registered/established co-habiting hetrosexual couples, homosexual couples, as well as hetrosexual couples who have undergone a civil marriage.

Using the term "marriage" as in "gay marriage" sends out the wrong signals. Its emotive and it ignites people's worst fears. We do not need access to fancy dress cermonies in churches, 10,000euro wedding breakfasts in rip off hotels, maiden aunts giving us presents of bed linen and bone china or any of the other trappings of Catholic weddings. I am more than happy to leave all that crap to the hetty community who are daft enough to engage in it.

What I do want is my civil rights, and my rights to the benefits for my partner and i under the tax and social welfare codes which we have paid for.

An as for some form of church cermony, if I am not good enough to be allowed a full marriage in the eyes of the Church, I have no interest whatsoever is some grubby little back door arrangement such as a "blessing ritual".

I am a committed Christian, accept and believe in the Risen Christ and the New Testament and have no fears about the outcome of my interview on Judgement Day. Which is likely to be a far more favourable outcome than a good number of our high profile Christian Soldiers can expect.

Anyway I really hope those two guys enjoy their bus/rail passes. They are an inspiration to the rest of us.

ixoy

Originally posted by oneweb
Anyway ixoy, you're looking at it with the wrong perspective IMO. It's a good thing that around half of the people accept homosexual marriage. Goes to show that things are getting better.

I was feeling a bit snarky when I wrote that You're right. What I would have preferred was a break down by age demographic. I'd very much image young people would be more in favour than older generations and I'd have liked to have seen how all this showed up in the polls...

Annasopra

This is really a step forward for the Equality Authority and Irelands LGB community and I am glad that it has come at a time when controversy is starting to rumble from within the Gay Community about the appointment to the Board of the Equality Authority of Mr. Bob Quinn failed PD candidate at the last general election who openly stated that he opposed gay marriage on television



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