Republic ‘s Gay marriage referendum

Homosexual Marriage and the Conscience Clause: a possible compromise?

Turgon on May 24, 2015, 1:10 pm

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So the homosexual marriage referendum passed in the Republic. As Mick noted below this makes Northern Ireland the only place in the UK and Ireland without same sex marriage though not the only place in the British Isles. The Isle of Mann has civil partnership but not homosexual marriage whilst Jersey in the Channel Isles has civil partnerships and is considering homosexual marriage. More interesting perhaps is Guernsey’s proposal of “Union Civile” which allows for partnerships between any two people …

As a Christian I would vote ‘yes’ to gay marriage…

Dave Thompson on May 22, 2015, 4:45 pm

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"Rainbow flag breeze" by Benson Kua. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainbow_flag_breeze.jpg#/media/File:Rainbow_flag_breeze.jpg

Christians in Northern Ireland haven’t had the best of press lately; ‘gay’ cakes and court cases, same sex marriage and even one would-be MP who wanted to bring back corporal punishment. Nolan (BBC1 20th May) even interviewed Joshua Feuerstein, who most right wing American Christians would consider to be far right wing. But the Christian church in Northern Ireland is changing; it is, as they say, a ‘broad church’. Over the past months, in all those stories, I have yet …

Qualms about Asher’s Law but none over the gay marriage referendum: spot the difference

Brian Walker on May 21, 2015, 9:09 pm

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Forgive me if I take a new post to reply to Mick on Asher’s Law. I think he stretches the point about law and politics too widely. Let’s unpick this a bit. The sexual orientations order was passed under direct rule, by Peter Hain, not the Assembly. That makes it no less law. But it was one of those measures foisted on our politicians to try to force them to do the deal on restoring the Assembly. The message was, …