meVolution

Good morning, Ireland.

Today is your big day. Today you get the chance to show the world you have shaken off the shackles imposed by that most corrupt of institutions, the Catholic Church. Today you get the chance to take your seat at the grown-ups table. Today you get the chance to lead the world by stating in three small letters that equality is a bigger word than inequality.

Today you get the chance to shout ‘Yes!’

It really is your Rosa Parks moment, isn’t it. How are you coping? Bit stressed? I’ll bet.

I’ve been watching the debate from this side of the water. It’s been impassioned and heated and those opposed to equality have at times resorted to equivocation at best and downright distraction at worse:

The church, in the shape of the Iona Institute and Mothers & Fathers Matter, have been busily tugging at the proverbial ‘What About The Poor Little Children‘ heart-strings by stating the obvious fact that you can’t replace the love of a mother (in the case of two gay fathers), or the love of a father (in the case of two gay mothers) without ever telling us just exactly how they know this?

In the absence of facts I’ve yet to see any of them pointing at Elton John’s kids saying, “See! See what a pack of bastards they turned out to be!” Or Rosie O’Donnell’s kids. Or Jodie Foster’s kids. Or any gay couples kids for that matter.

They fail of course to mention that this irreplaceable love is not so much replaced as lost completely in the heterosexual divorce courts on a daily basis. Or, for that matter, where research does exist, that it would seem to show that gay couples divorce each other less frequently than ‘normal’ couples.

Yes, when it comes to family values and obvious facts, it would appear that, along with dress sense, gay and lesbian couples can really teach us straight buggers a thing or two.

So much for the threat to the institution of marriage that allowing all citizens equal rights before the law will bring. Kinda’ strange to hear that giving others the same rights that you have will somehow dilute those very rights rather than strengthen them.

The more shameless of those opposing equality have also – quoting US statistics – insinuated that ‘fatherless’ children are more likely to end up in prison, or on drugs, though what this has to do with the argument at hand is quite frankly beyond me? Are these US statistics stating that the offspring of lesbian couples are more likely to commit crime or be addicted to drugs? Of course not. No more so than they state that offspring of lesbian couples will be green with purple hair. It is patent nonsense.

Then why mention this at all?

The answer is obvious. It is the scatter-gun approach to argument:

Smoke and Mirrors; Confusion; Obfuscation; Equivocation; An appeal to tradition; An appeal to the norm.

These are the tactics employed by a regime that has watched its power base being swept from under it by reason, rationalism, and the very public exposition of its own corrupt, malign, and immoral nature.

Interesting, then, to observe the obvious frustration at their inability to play the ‘kiddie fiddler’ card – the unspoken assumption that historically associates gay men with paedophilia. The unspoken assumption that I’ve seen reflected in the vox-pops of your older generation nightly on TV, the, “It’s not right” and, “Think of the poor children“, where the agents of the church can only nod in unspoken agreement, hands clasped in a tight-lipped communion of deceit.

When the lies and the fear-mongering are swept aside there is only one question that you have to ask yourself today: are you in favour of equality?

Well, are you? Do you think that anyone should be treated less equally than you? Do you think that other people should be allowed the same rights as you under the law? Do you think that we should all be allowed to sit at the same table… on the same seats… on the same bus? Or do you think like one ageing Irishman I recently spoke to who was “All for Equality…” but thought that this time it had, ”… gone too far”.

What part of equal do you think goes too far?

This is your Rosa Parks moment, Ireland. It’s time to make history.

Depending on the turnout it may yet go down to the wire. The polls all say it is the youth of Ireland that will carry the day – if they get out to vote – that this referendum is about a young and vibrant new Ireland facing up to the challenges of a modern world. That may be so – I hope it is, but perhaps it may also be worth sparing a thought to the many gay and lesbian Irish people among these older generations. There is no less a percentage among them than among these vibrant Irish youth.

Homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice.

They are there. They are many. They have been there forever. Hidden by dogma. Condemned to isolated, lonely, loveless lives – or forced into living one hell of a lie. The youth of Ireland are not just voting for themselves. This vote will be for those older people, too.

This is your Rosa Parks moment, Ireland. Grab hold of the seat in front of you. Don’t budge. Not one inch. It’s time to stop this bus.

Anvil Springstien.

Loosely related: ‘Talking Out of Your Hat’. –  ‘Dear Tom Daley…’