Lesbian couple WIN the right for judicial review!

Sleipnir

Great news, even if you're not a gay couple.



Lesbian couple wins right to seek marriage recognition



11:15 Tuesday November 9th 2004



The High Court has ruled that a lesbian couple be allowed to proceed with a judicial review of the Revenue Commissioners' refusal to recognise them as a married couple for tax purposes.
The Revenue has refused to grant married-couple tax status to Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan, who were wed in Canada last year.

They have argued that this discriminates against them on the grounds of gender and/or sexual orientation and breaches their rights under the Irish Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter on the Fundamental Rights of the EU.

claire h

Lemon

Yeah its brilliant!! Fingers crossed for them!!

seamus

It was going to happen eventually. As we pointed out on this board, there are no grounds in the Irish constitution for denying gay marraiges, the only barrier is the "intention" of the Constitution, which is something that needs to be challeneged and redefined as the country evolves, given that it's neither set in stone nor relevant in a modern context.

I'm not gay, but I'd welcome gay marraige. It'd be great to see a referendum on the issue. I doubt it would pass though, unless all of Dublin votes, and less than 30% of the rest of the country vote.

Sleipnir

Well the country wouldn't have to give gay couple the right to 'marry' in order to give them rights for tax purposes or succession. Or to be recognized as a couple.

That is, a referendum could give people the right to register as a couple without having to marry. That's what I would like to see (as someone living with the mother of my child but not married to her)
That way, the government would be seen to be protecting marraige for bible-bashers without refusing rights to co-habiting couples.

seamus

Well yes, it's civil union that would need to be done. However, they would still need to be conducted in a manner similar to marraiges, which is what would grate on the bible-bashers and homophobes.

I wouldn't be too crazy about allowing people to register as couples, unless there were tight controls on who can and cannot apply (say living together for 5 years with penalties for dissolution of the union within 5 years of applying). We don't want a legal loophole opening up that allows any two people who happen to be living in the same house (housemates/flatmates/roommates) to fraudulently register as a legal couple, and evade tax.

fozzle

This is great, it's really going to open people's eyes to what's going on in this country, and the discrimination against all unmarried couples, not just gay couples, that the church's control over this country has caused. About time the separation of church and state became a reality.

Aava

Nicely done!

ixoy

It's good news alright. Even a cursory glance at this forum will reveal it's perhaps the most wildly debated topic of the last while and the fact it's gone for judicial review says, if nothing else, that's there's enough substance to their argument to warrant a review.

I'm not sure how this process of law works and how long these proceedings will take. At the very least however it should bring the issue to the public fore and get people talking about it and debating the merits of it. I'd be interested to see how the Church reacts - I do not predict we'll have to worry about a repeat of the worrying events in the US of recent times. Even in a worse case scenario, where the case falls through, it'll lay ground work for those to follow.

Yoda

The Justices will have a choice: Do the right thing now, or fail to do so and be told to do it by Europe later.