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Gay News: An Irish Times poll shows that 67% of Irish people support the right of gays to marry.
By: Nigel Robinson
Homosexuality was legalised in 1993
Homosexuality was legalised in 1993
Majority of Irish support gay marriage
16 September 2010
A further 60 % believe that the current civil partnership laws do not undermine the institution of marriage.
The newspaper’s poll on “sex, sin and society” has revealed surprisingly liberal views in this predominantly Catholic country.
The vast majority of people (91%) say that they would not think less of a person if that person revealed himself or herself to be gay or lesbian.
Homosexuality was legalised in Ireland in 1993.
“Put simply, being gay or lesbian isn’t such a big taboo, and neither is the subject of gay and lesbian couples getting married,” Moninne Griffith, director of Marriage Equality, told the Irish Times.
“The Irish people are clearly ready for it, so the question must be asked, why do the Irish Government persist in denying the human right to marry?”
However, less than half of those polled (46%) believed that gay couples should have the right to adopt children, and over a third (38%) were opposed to the idea.
The survey has also revealed other liberal attitudes with 79% saying that sex outside of marriage is not immoral, and 57% believing that cohabitation before marriage is more likely to result in a stable marriage.
Half of this questioned considered virginity in a potential partner to be virtue, while 36% did not.
Most people also believed that eighteen was the most appropriate age for a teenager to start having sex. The current age of consent in Ireland is seventeen for both hetero- and homosexuals.
