by Hilary White
DUBLIN, April 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ireland’s Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, pledged to an audience of homosexual activists that Ireland would install gay “marriage” as in the UK. “Sexual orientation cannot, and must not, be the basis of a second-class citizenship. Our laws have changed, and will continue to change, to reflect this principle,” Ahern told Ireland’s leading homosexual political pressure group the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network on Monday.
Ahern cited the country’s deep Catholic roots as an obstacle to granting legal equivalence to homosexual partnerings compared to the UK where only approximately 16% attend church regularly. Ahern could face serious opposition in Ireland which is one of the few European countries where church attendance is on the rise. Catholicireland.net reports that in a Mintel Ireland marketing survey, 15% of the Irish respondents said that attendance at church services ranked among their top 5 priorities during their free time, up from only 9.3% in 2003.
Ahern said his government was “committed” to the imposition of gay “marriage.” He said that a government-appointed group of “experts” would be submitting a report in November to explore possible legal options.
“Although there is a growing climate of equality and support for anti-discrimination action, I also recognize that members of the gay community still face isolation, abuse and victimization on the basis of their sexuality.” Ahern said.
Ahern’s use of the language of “rights, “discrimination,”“victimization” and “equality” are red flags for supporters of traditional marriage. The homosexual lobby’s appropriation of the language of persecution has not only created a favorable climate for changing the legal definition of marriage in many countries, but facilitated the intimidation of opposition.
In those countries where homosexual “marriage” or civil recognition of homosexual partnerings has been established, freedom of religious expression has often been at least tacitly suppressed.
In Canada, marriage commissioners who want to opt out of witnessing homosexual unions on conscientious grounds have been opposed by the government.
In Spain, judges who have challenged the legality of homosexual unions and refused to participate are finding themselves at odds with the socialist government that uses the gay lobby’s vocabulary of “rights” and “discrimination.”