David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A week ago, the British Parliament passed legislation about gay marriage. Yesterday, the French Parliament passed similar legislation, also by an overwhelming majority. It was described as a great and noble effort by the French Minister for Justice. This was done despite the machinations of the Roman Catholic Church, which gave its premises free of charge to house people and to mount campaigns in all its churches. It was really scraping the bottom of the barrel because this squalid crusade was led by a French comedienne by the name of Frigide Barjot. It is regrettable such things should continue to happen but, unfortunately, I am used to this attitude from the church.

We have recently heard about apologies to the Magdalen women, and I strongly support that. I think people like myself are entitled to an apology too from the State, from the Roman Catholic Church in particular and from the Pope, who every Christmas Eve gave a message of disdain for gay people that stung and hurt so many vulnerable people throughout the world. When I say an apology, I say that in the context that some of the Magdalen women said the most bitter thing for them was that all the lovely experiences of their youth were taken from them. They were taken from people of my generation too. I have known eight people who were murdered simply because they were gay. The number of people who became addicted to alcohol and who through depression took their own lives is considerably greater. The Magdalen women described their experience as being like imprisonment. During my lifetime, and I have witnessed this, people were imprisoned, they were actually placed in jail by this State, because of their sexual orientation. They were actually tortured. I have dealt with people who were subjected to involuntary electroconvulsive therapy and who were fed violent chemical emetics to change their orientation.

At the moment we are in danger of those sorts of reactionary church forces engaging once more because they are going to lose, as the church sees it, in this battle on abortion. Gay people may once more become the scapegoat, victims of a witch hunt, and the whipping boys. That is how the church sees this. It is one down and wants to score another. It is time people stood up and said it is intolerable that people who have been murdered, tortured and imprisoned without apology in this country should once again be made the punch bag of conservative forces.