With just weeks to go to the same-sex marriage referendum, different groups across the country have been campaigning for both a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ vote.
The North Tipperary For Equality group launched their campaign on April 17th and during the meeting, local man Damien McKelvey gave a powerful and emotional speech on his experiences as a gay man in Ireland and his reasons for voting ‘yes’.
“Since you’re a child, you thinking about getting married… whether it’s to a man or a woman. It’s because marriage is family. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there are kids involved, family is being with the person that makes you happiest, watching television with the person that makes you happiest, fighting over the remote control… all those mundane small things that everybody takes for granted,” he said.
“We, at the moment, can’t have that. Me and David are told that we’re not good enough to be a family. So just think of yourself or your kids… that you’re just not good enough to qualify for a family. That’s why I don’t want civil partnership, I want marriage.”
If you haven’t registered to vote in the upcoming referendum, you can find out more at checktheregister.ie.
