National Campaign Launched to Improve Visibility For Lesbian and Gay Families Living in Ireland

Published: Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Today Marriage Equality is launching We Are Family, a national poster campaign which gives visibility to LGBT families living in Ireland. The groundbreaking campaign shatters the silence and myths surrounding our families and calls on the Government to recognise and protect same-sex couples and our children.
We Are Family posters depicting real Irish lesbian and gay couples, some with their children, are being carried by Dublin Bus and have been sent to Libraries, Family Resource Centres and Community Information Centres nationally. Further information is available on www.marriagequality.ie/wearefamily .
We Are Family is a pioneering campaign with simple messages, that same sex families are like any other, our children are the same as other Irish children, and that our families deserve to be recognised and protected by Irish laws. Until same sex families are equal in law, we will continue to experience discrimination and stigma.
Some people in Ireland might not know a lesbian or gay family, and so We Are Family is an introduction of sorts to the wonderful diversity of Irish family life. What is often forgotten too, is that apart from the immediate same sex family unit, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are also sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, even grandmothers and grandfathers. We are already interwoven into Ireland's family fabric and the Government must move to recognise this fact.
Equal marriage rights for same-sex couples will lead to the recognition and protection of LGBT families. The Government's Civil Partnership Bill on the other hand, continues to deny the existence of same-sex families and ignores our children entirely. This leaves our families legally vulnerable in matters such as inheritance, access, maintenance and so on. The simple solution is for the Irish Government to make this issue a priority for their Programme for Government.
The Government will be encouraged to make this a matter of priority if members of the public contact their locally elected representative and raise the issue with them. All families deserve equality and We Are Family carries this important message and call to action to the Irish public.
We Are Family is Marriage Equality's latest campaign and was made possible thanks to the support of The Community Foundation of Ireland, the wonderful families who participated and Ronan Healy who took the beautiful photos.
Campaign posters can be viewed or downloaded from www.marriagequality.ie/wearefamily