After battling with Tinder and relentless terrible first dates, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and take the plunge. Married life awaits. At the age of 24 and with virtually no financial security of life stability I’ve decided that now is the time for me to have children. Marriage is in the eyes of the law an act of love and hopefully I’ll grow to love my spouse or at least tolerate him. But much more than this, marriage is a state of legal protection for the family and as a straight female adult this is something that I am legally entitled to so long as I have a consenting partner.
After marriage, we’ll have children. How many? Who knows!? We’ll probably have a civil ceremony but in the eyes of the law we’ll be married so that’s good enough for me.
So boys come get me when I’m hot-ish (in low lighting!). For your chance to give up the dating rat race apply here:http://form.jotformeu.com/form/51003715014337
See, who says we need to waste our lives swiping right in order to find our prince charming?
In truth, it’s unlikely that I will pick my future spouse, the father to my future children via a webform (But don’t let that put you off boys – I’m awesome at awkward first dates) but should this lunatic idea work and I do fall head over heels in love then one day we’ll sign the dotted line and become legally bound to eachother which a scary and huge commitment. Then if we proceed with the fairytale, we’ll have children and watch our children follow in our footsteps.
But what if our future son or daughter finds themselves falling in love with someone of the same sex. What if they want to share their love with children and create their own family unit? Could it be that the country of Ireland would stand in their way?
Now some might argue that marriage is an act which is blessed by the church and that civil partnership which was introduced in Ireland in 2010 is enough for “the gays” but that’s really not the case. Nobody is asking for the Catholic church to start to start draping the rainbow flag on the cross or for the archbishop to lead the Dublin pride parade what they are asking is for their union in marriage to be equal to that of man and woman.Civil partnership although a step in the right direction still leaves a huge chasm between the rights and protections of same sex families and those who are joint in marriage.
Ireland has seen huge change in the last 20 to 30 years and it’s about time that as a nation we caught up with what is happening before our very eyes. From poverty to the boom of the Celtic Tiger to the recession and the mass emigration of the countries youth and it’s about time that we caught up with the modern ages, remove the blinkers and see the world in full HD.
As one of the hundreds of thousands of people who have left the green and lovely shores of Ireland in hope of building a better life, I often get asked about my plans to move back and I always say that one day if I have children I would love to go back and for my children to have a similar upbringing to what I had. To me, that would be the perfect fairytale ending but the current marriage equality debate has made me rethink my answer, What if one of my children is gay? Would they be forced to leave their home, their family, their country just to have the right to live out their own happily ever after? There’s a huge social media campaign at the moment called Send Love Home. There are millions of Irish emigrants and descendants all over the world who are supporting marriage equality in the hope that Ireland will share the love that we hold for it.
Facebook is alight with videos and support campaigns from #RingYourGranny, YesEquality to simple profile stickers which pledge your support but unless we actually take to the polls and put our mark in the little yes box then clogging up our news feeds is utterly pointless. Young people of Ireland it has never been more imporatnat for you vote. Vote for your brothers, your sisters, your children and future grandchildren.
Vote for an Ireland that some day I’ll be proud to come home to and have a home of my own.
Remember in order to vote you need to be on the electoral register and time is running out. Registration closes on the 5th of May! In order to register your vote just fill out this simple form: https://www.checktheregister.ie/appforms/RFA2_English_Form.pdf or if you’re not sure whether you are registered or not you can even check using Facebook https://www.facebook.com/referendumcommission/timeline
Could you live with yourself if you didn’t support it?
anitamaguire 