A chara, – Both Jim Carroll ("The marriage equality referendum and the hearts and minds campaign", April 8th) and Eoghan McDermott ("The No side will win the marriage referendum if campaigns don't change", Opinion & Analysis, April 1st) have argued that the Yes campaign is slowly ceding ground in the "hearts and minds" campaign for marriage equality. Carroll argues that gay campaigners "need to get out there and tell their stories and make that simple connection with the mass of the electorate".
Has it occurred to either writer that making this connection isn’t simple at all? That it’s exhausting to repeatedly share some of your most painful experiences? That it’s difficult to lay out your heart, hopes and fears, knowing they could be spat back at you at any moment? That it’s extremely difficult to respond politely to opponents whose primary argument is that you, and others like you, shouldn’t be trusted with children?
Despite all that, people across the country and further afield are sharing their stories everyday, willing to risk pain and prejudice not only for their own sakes, but so that future generations of LGBT people will never be asked to prove that they deserve equal treatment. – Is mise,
NIAMH NÍ MHAOILEOIN,
London.
Sir, – Would it not be more honest to use the term “civil union” to cover all forms of partnership or marriage sanctioned by law? Those who still believe that marriage denotes the union of a man and a woman could use that word to describe that relationship informally or following a religious service. – Yours, etc,
KATHARINE DAVEY,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.