Dear Ireland,
I’m making one last call urging people to vote 'no' and put equality for children first. This referendum is not about how we feel about gay people.
It shouldn't be seen as a negative judgment on gay people but a positive judgment on how we value a child's right to know their parents and their identity.
It is about protecting a child's rights to know their grandparents and extended family.
A yes vote will radically shift marriage as a child-centered institution to one that is driven by the desires of adults.
I'm asking voters to put equality for children first. People should consider the consequences that would flow from a yes vote and how that would impact on children's rights.
To claim that marriage, as is laid out in Article 41 of the Irish Constitution (The Family), is not about children, is the same as saying astronomy is not about stars.
This referendum is about the future ramifications that enshrining a genderless marriage in our constitution will have.
It is about the future decisions courts will make where gay couples will exercise their new constitutional right to procreate.
If the referendum passes we will see custody cases and surrogacy cases where children will be cut off from their parents.
It is obvious that the government wants to create a clear constitutional path to facilitate surrogacy laws in the future.
It will also make it constitutionally impossible for future policy to favor male-female couples when bringing up children.
I believe civil partnership should be given constitutional protection.
I believe civil marriage should be allowed to be strengthened and become a real gay institution.
Constitutional protection for civil partnerships can be achieved without redefining marriage.
To move marriage so far away from its original purpose, as a framework for encouraging parents to stay together and raise their children would be reckless.
What we are being asked to do tomorrow is not a mere extension to Article 41 but it is a radical change of the social, constitutional and legal character of marriage in its entirety, and for this reason I am asking people to vote no.
Paddy Manning
