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Ireland passes Civil Partnership Bill: Excuse me if I don’t feel like dancing

12/07/2010 by JR Russell

On the eve of my fifth wedding anniversary, I sat at the computer, my eyes and ears glued to the live feed from the Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate) as they discussed the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009 (catchy, isn’t it?).

The bill passed 48-4. It didn’t seem like it would be such a landslide, but perhaps the timbre of the homophobe apologists weighed disproportionately in my mind. It was, without a doubt, an historic event that was marked with a manual vote, as requested by Senator David Norris, one of the brightest heroes of the LGBT movement in Ireland.

Still, I can’t quite bring myself to celebrate.

The bill is a massive step in the right direction. For a country that took until 1993 to decriminalise homosexuality, there is huge public support for civil unions. The vast majority of the general population were in favour of civil unions. An evangelical alliance in Ireland has even released a statement supporting civil unions and citing separation of church and state. The Roman Catholic Church — those gatekeepers of perfect sexual morality and experts on family life — have fought this every step of the way. Even with that huge majority of popular support, this legislation wouldn’t have seen the light of day if it hadn’t been for the political maneuvering of the Green Party.

And, of course, the homophobes like Ronan Mullen used children and fear mongering as a weapon to ensure that the children of gay couples will continue to have fewer rights than those born to heterosexual married couples. That’s nothing new to Ireland. In this country, the children of married and unmarried couples have different rights. Actually, children have very few rights — the difference is that married couples have more rights to their children than do unmarried couples.

And of course, civil partnerships are not equality. It’s an entirely separate institution designed to keep us in our second class place. It’s discrimination now codified into law. It’s not marriage, nor is it equal to marriage.

I know a lot of queers don’t want marriage. As a married queer, I’m in favour of it. It’s something I wanted, and feel my participation in the insitution of marriage proves it can be other than what it has been — a marriage between two women will not exist to limit women.

I am married, and what gets my goat right now is that, as part of this law, my equal-in-all-respects Canadian marriage will become a second-class, separate and discriminatory Irish civil partnership, without me even signing on a dotted line. In some impractical ways, it seemed better to have an unrecognised marriage than to have a marriage recognised as something other than what it is. In practical ways, of course, a civil partnership is far more useful.

Five years ago, we stood in front of a minister, in a church, surrounded by our closest friends and family. I wore a white suit; she wore a white dress. It was informal and there had been no rehearsal, so there were laughs when we were walking back down the aisle and the minister had to shout to get us to come back and sign the register.

In my home country, my wife and I are as married as my parents and grandparents are. Here, we will be registered civil partners, in no way joined similarly to my parents-in-law, or neighbours, friends and colleagues. My civil status will reveal my sexual orientation and my status as a second-class resident of this country.

As monumental and as worthy a victory this has been, I don’t feel like dancing quite yet. There is a lot to do before we really have equality.