David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It will be interesting to learn how many Labour Party rebels there are - good for them.

The letter writer continues by noting that the Constitution is clear and that it:

...provides that "The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority, as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State." Paragraph 3 ... provides that "The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack." There is nothing vague about these articles. The State guarantees to protect the family; it pledges to guard the Institution of Marriage [and so on].

She goes on to write:

I have asked but neither I nor anyone in TENI have ever received a reply to the question of how the State meets these obligations under the Constitution by trying to force me to divorce. My wife, my children and I are all citizens of this Country. Why is our family being singled out for such an attack? Well, it is simply my fault. I am TRANS. My identity is very important to me. But my family is my life itself. I should not be asked to give up one for the other. The legislative requirement that I do is an obscenity.

I acknowledge that I have spent a long time reading this letter and apologise for doing so, but it is such a powerful letter. It stands as a declaration of freedom, a declaration of independence and a declaration - whatever the Iona Institute and its cronies might say - of support for the family as an institution. Perhaps it is a modified form of the family, but are we not all celebrating the fact that our institutions and arrangements are being broadened constantly? I believe this will only last for a short time. The referendum will be held in May and the Government appears to be calculating that nothing disastrous will happen before then. However, that means that there is an absolute obligation on everybody in this House who believes in equality to propagandise, walk the streets and talk to people in shops and their cousins. I met my cousin and his wife in the Kildare Street Club on Sunday and over lunch he told me he was voting against equality in marriage. There was nothing I could say to change his position and he is a consultant physician. He told me he liked to vote against in referendums and while he has this pie-eyed approach, he is only one and can be dismissed. Unfortunately, because his wife who is 25 times more intelligent and would vote in favour with great alacrity is an English double-barrel as I call her - a reader of The Daily Telegraphand all that - she does not have a vote, being a loyal subject of Her Majesty the Queen. This is a wrong that is being done to people, but I hope it will be transient. It is not legally justifiable, but there are different opinions and one can take one or another.

I will leave that thought with the Minister of State, but it is important, for the illumination of anybody who cares to read the record of Seanad Éireann, that the speeches of Senators Marie Maloney, Hildegarde Naughton, Katherine Zappone, Averil Power, Mary White and so on be read and that this human testimony from the transgender community be written into the history of Ireland.