Sir, – Dr Pádraic Whyte ( February 2015) claims that those calling for a No vote in the marriage referendum, while claiming to represent the interests of children, have not thought about the gay children and teenagers listening to the debate: "On a daily basis, these children are told that they are not equal to their classmates, while classmates are told that their gay friends are worth less." I haven't heard anybody say this.
He also writes: “This can generate and perpetuate a culture of fear and intolerance in the classroom, of homophobic bullying in the schoolyard, and of hate crimes on the street.” This is the latest pretext by which open discussion is being discouraged and even suppressed – the unprovable doctrine that somebody expressing an opinion leads to somebody else inflicting violence. Taken to its logical conclusion, this would ultimately stop anyone from expressing disapproval of anything. Are the regular denunciations of “homophobe” and “bigot” putting opponents of this referendum proposal (or, indeed, their children) in danger of being beaten up? Why not? Because people with the “right” opinions don’t do that kind of thing?
Finally, the concept of equality is the very concept at issue in this debate. Those calling for a Yes vote believing it is required to bring about marriage equality; those opposed think that there is already marriage equality, since the same laws apply to everyone. Can’t we respect each other’s opinions enough not to throw around the term “equality” as though its application were obvious? It is, in fact, a perennially vexed term. – Yours, etc,
MAOLSHEACHLANN
Ó CEALLAIGH,
Ballymun, Dublin 11.
Sir, – A plea to opponents of marriage equality. By all means, try to convince me that some people’s lives will go worse if there is marriage equality. By all means, try to convince me of the slipperiness of the slope from marriage equality to unspeakable licentiousness. But please stop saying – as several of your correspondents have in recent days – that there cannot be marriage equality because it is not possible to “redefine” marriage. None of the scores of countries and US states in which there is marriage equality appear to have vanished in a puff of logical or conceptual confusion. So it is quite mysterious what reason to oppose marriage equality people take themselves to be offering when they make this sort of claim. – Yours, etc,
DAVID O’BRIEN,
Madison,
Wisconsin.