A chara, – In the current debate on marriage equality, many No campaigners claim that they are concerned about the rights of children, yet they have not spared a thought for the gay children and teenagers listening to the debate; listening to people tell them that they are not equal citizens and that they never should be equal. Perhaps the No campaigners should consider the detrimental effects that their words can have on the mental health and wellbeing of young people. On a daily basis, these children are told that they are not equal to their classmates, while classmates are told that their gay friends are worth less. This can generate and perpetuate a culture of fear and intolerance in the classroom, of homophobic bullying in the schoolyard, and of hate crimes on the street.
Open and honest debate is an essential part of our democracy, but with it comes responsibility. Let’s remember the child who is listening. It might even be yours. – Is mise,
Dr PÁDRAIC WHYTE,
Lecturer in
Children’s Literature,
School of English,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – The claim that current adoption law shows no preference for a child being adopted by a married man and woman over a single person is false.
Neither the Adoption Act 2010 nor its 1991 forerunner provide for single persons (who are unrelated to the prospective adoptee) having an equal right to adopt as that of married couples. In both Acts the right of a single person to adopt is lesser, being subject to the qualifier “in the particular circumstances”. It is a matter of Oireachtas record that the minister originally responsible for conferring the more limited qualified right to adopt upon single persons did so with only “very exceptional circumstances” in mind. The preference in favour of adoption by married couples indicates respect for a child’s interest in having both a mother and a father.
The forthcoming referendum on marriage will affect adoption law in this regard. If passed, statute law would almost certainly be prohibited from giving preference to a husband and wife applying to adopt a child over two husbands or two wives. Any such statutory preference would contravene the constitutional equality guarantee. Hence adoption law would be required to leave some adoptive children either motherless or fatherless. This would be done deliberately and on behalf of adult equality rather than a child’s best interests. – Yours, etc,
Dr THOMAS FINEGAN,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – Surely those truly concerned with “cherishing the children of the nation equally” will want to acknowledge the equal legitimacy of LGBT relationships, thus giving LGBT children role models and showing them that they are as loved and as valuable to us as their heterosexual peers. – Yours, etc,
NÓRA GERAGHTY,
Galway.