Sharing the right to marry can only serve to solidify marriage

There really is no other way to say it ... there is only one possible voting option, for reasonable, fair-minded and compassionate people, in the upcoming referendum on gay marriage. Vote yes!
In equally simple terms, if you don’t believe in gay marriage, that’s fine. That’s your prerogative, although I strongly disagree with you. But, you don’t have to impose your view on anyone else.
Human rights are continuously developing and transforming, and the battle grounds continues to shift and change.
Earlier this century, those who understood the implicit equality between all genders, colours and creeds, would have been ardent supporters of the suffrage movement.
Then as the years passed, there was clearly an obligation to battle against a racism which blighted the 21st century, whether it be the old colonial superiority which has left many parts of the world in disarray or the vitriolic anti-Semitism which permeated Nazi Germany.
Thankfully, there is now robust legislation in most modern countries, although the curse of racism continues to exist to a worrying extent across the globe.
But yet, gay people continue to face significant discrimination, whether it be the virulent anti-homosexual bills being proposed in Uganda or the simple fact that in many countries gay people are treated differently by the State than straight people.
Equality between gay and straight remains an unresolved human rights issue.
The Catholic Bishops have already issued statements indicating their opposition to gay marriage.
They argue that to “change the nature of marriage would be to undermine it as the fundamental building block of our society”.
This make as much sense as to say that giving women the vote undermined a man’s right to vote.
Sharing rights doesn’t dilute them, instead, it reaffirms them.
Here we have a new constituency wishing to be married - seeking the State’s endorsement of their relationship, and seeking to commit to each other for life. This can only be seen as a strengthening of marriage.
Of course, any gay marriage will be civil affairs - rather than church marriages. But, the Catholic Church defines marriage as a religious sacrament.
The bishops’ statement read: “The Church will therefore participate fully in the democratic debate leading up to the referendum and will seek with others to reaffirm the rational basis for holding that marriage should be reserved for the unique and complimentary relationship between a woman and a man from which the generation and upbringing of children is uniquely possible.”
If the church wishes to define religious marriage in this way, that’s understandable, but it has no right to attempt to define civil marriage in the same way. The church is not being asked to consecrate gay marriages. In fact, it’s not being asked anything. This is not about religious beliefs,
The people of Ireland are being asked to allow all our citizens share the same civil - and not religious - rights.
If the separation of church and state means anything, it must include the idea that people cannot be forced by the Government to live according to the dictates of others’ religion or any one religion.
Progressive elements of Irish society have had to fight for the right to contraception, for the right to divorce, for the right to think for ourselves.
In early 2015, there’s the opportunity to ensure one more victory over those who would keep us imprisoned in old strait-jackets.
The suggestion that gay marriage would somehow lessen heterosexual marriage is an insult to couples of all genders and sexual persuasion and betrays a fundamental lack of human generosity.
It’s time for the people of Ireland to display the fundamental decency and solidarity for which we are known the world over.