Irish Senator challenges same-sex marriage opponent to public debate

Irish Senator Katherine Zappone has challenged an opponent to same-sex marriage to a public debate.

Zappone, Ireland’s only out lesbian Senator, responded to comments made by Senator Rónán Mullen in which he accused the country’s media of a “groupthink” ahead of the upcoming Marriage Equality Referendum.

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“This echoes his concurrent statements in the Seanad that members of the political establishment are doing the groupthink thing too because they “simply dare not speak out”,” Zappone wrote in a letter to the Irish Times.

“My surprise comes from having listened to him often call for us all to respect each other in this debate. I would think it disrespectful to name church and religious figures as participating in groupthink, because it is language that denigrates as well as sidesteps debate on the substantive issues.

She continued: “Mr Mullen also says that he looks forward to a more balanced debate as the referendum approaches, and that it has been “all emotionalism” up to now.

“In my view this is a debate that calls upon all dimensions of human intelligence – emotional, spiritual and rational. I think that this is the debate that we are having now in the public domain and at dinner tables up and down the country.

“As for the future, would Mr Mullen like to meet me on the public debate trail? For that matter, I would be keen also to participate in a respectful and public debate with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin as well.”

Ireland will vote on May 22nd, with the LGBT community recently being warned that there may be an increase in homophobia from opposition in the coming weeks and months.

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