The commitment to a working group on civil partnerships announced yesterday marks a significant societal shift in how we approach difference and diversity, writes Niall Crowley.
'We feel very privileged and blessed to be able to be here doing this." These were the feelings of Shannon Sickels after exchanging vows in Belfast City Hall with Gráinne Close. They are the first same sex couple in Northern Ireland to form a civil partnership. These sentiments capture the importance and personal impact of the new rights and recognition accorded to same sex couples under the UK Civil Partnerships Act 2004.
The legal recognition of same sex relationships accords status to gay and lesbian relationships. The absence of this legal recognition or some form of limited recognition for same sex relationships that is not on a par with heterosexual relationships diminishes the status and standing of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in society. Diminished status creates and serves a cultural context that permits hostility, abuse and discrimination.
This is why the commitment by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to form a working group on civil partnerships holds so much potential for achieving equality for gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Homosexuality was decriminalised only in 1993 in response to a case taken by David Norris to the European Court of Human Rights. The Employment Equality Acts 1998 and 2004 and the Equal Status Acts 2000 to 2004 provided another landmark in the search for equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
The legislation prohibits discrimination in the workplace and in the provision of goods and services, accommodation and education on nine grounds including the ground of sexual orientation.
There have been setbacks since the introduction of the equality legislation. The Social Welfare Act 2004 and the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 effectively introduced discrimination against same sex cohabiting partners. Both Acts exclude same sex cohabiting partners from some of their provisions in a context where heterosexual cohabiting partners are provided for. The current equality legislation cannot require same sex partnerships rights because of limitations in its scope, definitions and exemptions. In such a context the announcement by the Minister marks a valuable advance.
The absence of any legal recognition for gay and lesbian relationships remains as the outstanding barrier in promoting equality for bisexual, gay and lesbian people.
The working group announced by the Minister represents an important commitment to removing this barrier and to addressing the needs of gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
This marks a significant move towards achieving greater equality for gay, bisexual and lesbian people. It marks a significant societal shift in how we approach difference and diversity. It represents a move that not only acknowledges diversity but expresses a valuing of this diversity and an openness to making adjustments that take this diversity into account.
This is important not only for lesbian, gay and bisexual people but for all groups experiencing inequality across the nine grounds covered by the equality legislation.
The developments in Northern Ireland under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 should provide an important benchmark and standard to be considered by the working group that will now be established. Under the Act, lesbian and gay couples in Britain and Northern Ireland now have broadly equivalent rights as those enjoyed by married heterosexual couples.
The Belfast Agreement, signed in April 1998, underpins the relevance of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to the deliberations of the working group. The Irish Government is required under the agreement to ensure "at least an equivalent level of protection of human rights as will pertain in Northern Ireland".
This places an obligation on Ireland to take steps similar to the UK Civil Partnerships Act 2004 to ensure an equivalence of rights as introduced in Northern Ireland.
The Irish Government can of course go beyond the requirements of equivalence. It could usefully go further than the provision of the Civil Partnership Act.
The Equality Authority report on Implementing Equality for Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals emphasised the centrality of partnership rights in achieving equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. This report emphasised the need for a legal framework for partnership rights.
This should address the different choices made in relation to partnership arrangements by gay and lesbian couples. It should reflect parity with the choices available to heterosexual couples. The legal framework for partnership rights should therefore cover a range of different situations including legal marriage.
The practical and difficult disadvantages experienced by lesbian and gay couples give an urgency to the need for a legal recognition for same sex couples. A number of examples suffice. The surviving partner of a same sex relationship has no inheritance rights. There is no equivalent right of a same sex partner in relation to guardianship or custody of the child of his or her partner. This means the child has no automatic right to continue in a relationship with their second parent if the biological parent dies. Joint tax assessment is not available to same sex partners.
The argument for partnership rights goes beyond issues of practical disadvantage. Partnership rights are central to the recognition and status of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in society. Further it can only be in the interests of society to protect all forms of mutually supportive relationships - same sex and heterosexual.
Niall Crowley is chief executive of the Equality Authority