PRESS RELEASE
Monday, April 15, 2013
For Immediate Publication
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) welcomed the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention on marriage equality yesterday, as 79% voted in favour of the Government taking action to provide equal access to civil marriage. 81% also voted in favour of providing protections for same-sex families and their children.
The Government will publish its decision on what it will do with the recommendation within four months, including a decision on whether or not a referendum will be held on the issue.
USI was one of the most prominent groups at the LGBT Noise March for Marriage last August, with hundreds of member students from all four regions in attendance. USI was heartened to see such strong cross-party support on this issue at the Convention.
There were over 1,000 submissions to the Constitutional Convention and three quarters of these were in favour of marriage equality. USI’s submission can be found here: http://bit.ly/YAEUK7
Laura Harmon, USI Vice President for Equality and Citizenship said:
“Our submission to the Convention featured a number of extraordinarily raw and emotional stories from students who have been vilified, bullied and marginalised because of their sexual orientation. This decision should pave the way for them being recognised as equal citizens in the eyes of the law and then, perhaps, in the eyes of all their peers.
We cannot and will not become complacent now. We must ensure that students are ready to translate their support for marriage equality into a positive referendum result. USI has a critical role to play in this and is currently preparing a national student voter registration drive. USI registered over 15,000 students prior to the General Election in 2011 and intends to surpass that number over the coming year.”
-ENDS-
For more information contact USI Media and Communications Executive, Ronan Costello, on 085-1164263 or email media@usi.ie