Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important and historic Bill. I very much welcome the publication of the Bill. I will be voting "Yes" and campaigning for marriage equality.

The one thing about human beings is that we are all different the world over. Sadly, history has shown how badly we, as human beings, treat people who are different. We need only look back at how the American Indian was treated as well as people of colour, women, particularly if they were pregnant outside of marriage, disabled people, or, as they would have been known in those times, handicapped people, transgender and intersex people and finally how gay people were treated and are still being treated in some societies today.

We are all born as we are. We come into the world as we are. We are either Irish, English or Scottish, depending on where we were born. We come in as we are, male or female. We come into the world as we are, whether we are gay, straight, intersex or transgender. We need to accept this. If we could accept the basic simple fact that we are as we are born on a worldwide basis, then I believe life and the world would be a better place.

The type of world that I want to live in is a world where equality is at the very root, where people are treated and respected equally and where we can all be who we are. We should not have to declare that we are somehow different. For example, I should not have to let everyone else know whether I am gay and therefore have to tell them that I am gay. I want to see a world where that thinking is eradicated. I want to see an Ireland where we do not have to do that any more and where a person is as she is and is accepted as who she is.

We are moving slowly but surely to this world of equality in small parts. In particular, I am delighted that we are discussing this here today. However, we have a great deal more to do. We have more educating to do and we have much to get across to people who are in opposition to what we are doing.

Allowing same-gender people to marry is no threat to society or to existing civil or religious marriage. Marriage has a stabilising effect on our society. As far as I am concerned, the more people who want to get married, the better. I do not mind if a person is young or old when she gets married, as long as she is old enough and sensible enough. I do not mind whether it is two men who want to get married or two women who want to get married. I believe it is good for society. The fact that people want to get married is something we should welcome rather than reject or make people feel that somehow their love for each other is less in some way. That is what marriage is all about. It is the commitment of loving each other and deciding that they are going to face the world together as a unit and grow old together. Why should people of opposite gender feel that their love is superior in some way to people who are of the same gender? Fundamentally, that is at the core of this. When I hear people talking about how allowing people of the same gender to get married is somehow going to threaten my marriage or someone else's marriage, it is an argument that holds absolutely no water as far as I am concerned.

I think back to when I was a child and growing into my teenage years, as well as reflecting on my own children in their teenage years, and trying to come to terms with their identity and who they are. It is difficult enough for a straight teenager but can we imagine how difficult it must be for a gay teenager? Can we imagine the children who are looking at this debate and discussion and saying to themselves: "Am I not good enough? Am I not accepted for who I am? Do I have to pretend to be somebody else to be accepted?" I want us to move to a place in our society where Ireland can show the way and be one of the leaders in the world, and will actually say: "We welcome you for who you are. We are glad that you are who you are and you are welcome in our society, and we will extend the rights that everybody else has to include you so that you can get married in a civil marriage, if you actually want to."

I had a very interesting discussion about this with a very nice man who came to my clinic the other day. He said he was for traditional marriage and that he could not get his head around this. I explained to him my feelings on traditional marriage and what we perceive to be traditional marriage. Was it traditional marriage where a woman actually became a possession of her husband? Was that right? No, it was not, but it happened not too long ago. In my grandmother's lifetime, it was the case that a wife could not actually own property herself and her husband automatically owned it.

I would ask the opponents of this referendum to consider very carefully the message they are sending out. If we are sending an impression that families who are less than their ideal, such as people who are reared by widows, by widowers or by aunts and uncles, are somehow lesser families, then I believe that is a very wrong message to send out. I would ask them to consider this very carefully and to be very respectful in this discussion. We should all have respect for each other's views but I would ultimately hope that this referendum will pass resoundingly.

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