http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,12592,1179715,00.htmlGay sex was still illegal just over a decade ago in Ireland. But in another milestone in the Irish sexual revolution, a Bill designed to grant gay couples the same rights in law as married heterosexuals will be introduced in the Dublin Senate next month.
And the champion of legal gay unions says he believes all the parties in Leinster House will back his legislation.
In his last major political battle of a 20-odd year career in Ireland's upper House, Senator David Norris' Domestic Partnership Bill 2004 would, if passed, effectively legalise gay and lesbian marriages.
The gay senator stresses that his Bill is not only aimed at protecting the rights of gays and lesbians, but also heterosexuals who live with each other but are not formally married. 'In terms of financial benefits such as inheritance rights, gay men, lesbians and unmarried couples are still second class citizens in this state,' Norris said.
'Take a gay couple who have been together all of their adult lives: if one of those men dies, his partner at present has no legal rights to inherit his long-term lover's pension.
He added: 'The same is the case with mortgages where a house cannot be handed over to the life-long partner if their lover, who is the mortgage holder, were to die. It is a terrible injustice which must be righted.'
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