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I wonder how we'd vote over here. I have a feeling we'd be following California, which is a terrible thing.
Related posts
Feb 22 2006
Loving you is not just luck or illusion. It’s in the make-up of our DNA *
Seems like every time you turn around there is a new debate spawning across the Irish blogosphere. The latest one comes after a poll published in the Irish[1] Examiner which states that 51% of Irish people are in favour of gay partnerships being recognised legally. And 50 of Irish people think that gay couples should be allowed to adopt.
Gay rights campaigners welcomed the poll’s results. Eoin Collins, director of policy change at the Gay & Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), said: “When you consider where we have come from where you could be imprisoned for life for being gay this is definitely progress. People are changing.”
United Irelander has a post, and asks a few questions, although I’d have to question his description of homosexuality as not natural.
But the post that really caught my attention was From Cork To Toronto where Eamonn Dunphy’s podcast[2] with John Waters is discussed. Now I’m not a dentist… wrong disclaimer. Sorry, I haven’t listened to it, but i’m not a John Waters fan. He does have some valid points to make about the rights, or lack there of, that fathers have in the Irish legal system. But far too often he tries to make a point by bashing the other side, and attempting to reduce the rights of “the opposing sides.” Interesting then to hear that he described the poll results as “gobshite liberalism”, “madness” and “fundamentally ignorant”, because surely, from a conservative standpoint the woman is the natural care-giver in a relationship and the mother should be the one with primary care of the children? It also points out the fact that he brings everything, even irrelevancies, back to his pet issues.
Mental Meanderings on the poll.
Much more aw-worthy was the news down the side of the Examiner website; Heath Ledger has asked Jake Gyllenhaal to be godfather to his daughter. Isn’t that cute? I suppose we’ll forgive Mr. Ledger the excuse of a film[3] that is Casanova
*we do of course apologise for the use of S Club 7 songs, but it seemed vaguely appropriate.
Linknotes:
Tags: Blogland, gay rightsRelated posts
Feb 02 2006
Well, I saw myself in more of a … patriarchal sort of role. You know, lots of pointing and scowling.
So there is a bit of a debate between Fiona from Mental Meanderings and United Irelander at, wel, United Irelander over an article written by Ronan Mullen in The Examiner. The article in question has to do with marriage, and gay rights, and conventional marriage and all that sort of stuff.
But while I was over at UI’s I started to wonder what exactly is a family?
Mullen says that a traditional marriage works best, that children raised by a mother and a father fair better.
There is a wealth of information and analysis out there to show that children do better with the traditional family model. That children should ideally enjoy the society of their biological father and biological mother throughout their formative years should not be seen as an outdated concept when study after study is bearing it out.
But you know what? This traditional family that is being mentioned, it isn’t really all that traditional at all. Does the average family of today resemble the family of 100 years ago? Or even 50?
Maybe on a superficial level, but is it the norm for the father to work, and the mother to stay at home, minding the kids, totally dependent on her spouse for everything?
Is it still okay for a man to demand his conjugal rights?
Are fathers still expectd to play no real role apart from that of enforcing discipline in the family?
After all those are all traditional values too aren’t they? Tradition doesn’t mean right, doesn’t even mean a good way to do things. All it means is that this is the way previous generations have done things.
But if you look closer you’ll see that maybe the previous few generations have acted that way, but before that things were different. It used to be traditional for three generations to live in the one house. In some cultures it is traditional for parents to arrange marriages.
As far as I’m concerned the limiting the definition of what a family is to the modern nuclear family is pointlessly restrictive. What about aunts, uncles, cousins, the extended family?
Family is what you make it. And that means you can’t legislate what a family is, and you certainly can’t legislate what a family isn’t.
Which brings me on to marriage, and what exactly marriage is for.
Is it a public declaration of love and faithfulness between two people? Or is it simply a legal way of ensuring who next of kin is, and all the rights married couples get? Or is it to provide a partnership to bring up children?
And no matter what your answer, why exactly does the sex of the people matter?
And, most important of all, why do I keep typing marraige when I mean marriage?
So many questions, I look forward to your answers.
ETA: participants in the debate: Progressive Ireland | Disullusioned Lefty | Sicilian Notes | For All We Know | Realitycheck(dot)ie
Tags: Blogland, debate, Family, gay rights, traditionsRelated posts
Jan 08 2006
Brokeback Mountain
- Heath Ledger - Ennis Del Mar
- Jake Gyllenhaal - Jack Twist
In a way it is a pity that this film has received so much press coverage, it’d be interesting to watch it not knowing what was going to happen between Ennis and Jack. But it is pretty much known as the gay cowboy film by now, so that part of the plot isn’t going to take anyone by surprise.
Tags: 8 Stars, Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountin, gay rights, happiness, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, live in the moment, looks pretty, romance, westernRelated posts
Jun 24 2005
Rare Religious Unity in Jerusalem
Just a pity it is homophobic in nature.
The ultra-Orthodox Jewish mayor of Jerusalem has banned an annual gay pride parade due to take place in the holy city next Thursday … Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders had denounced the festival as an abomination.
The Open House, the group who organised the parade intend to petition to allow the parade to go ahead.
And in other news:
Golf umbrellas in the city. NO!
