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But I voted for UKIP, who are a gnats knacker away from being Nazis, apparently.

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The most annoying part of the whole thing is the treacherous Green Party who promised Civil Marriage but as soon as they went into power they rolled over and said that we should be happy with CP's. If they are so easy with their promises then it's quite clear they can't be trusted on anything.

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Very true. But don't let the church brainwash you into thinking they own marriage – they don't. A church can refuse to marry a man and woman if one of the two has been divorced BUT that couple can then just go to a registry office and be married by the state in a civil marriage. Is it right that a gay couple, also refused by the church, can't do that? If the churches want to nitpick, then surely NO-ONE should get married outside of church because a civil marriage isn't 'marriage under God'?

I used to think it was just semantics too. I welcomed CPs in the UK and thought people who were fussing about the term were just being pedantic, but I've now changed my view. It doesn't matter whether non-religious marriages are called marriages, CPs or whatever, but it DOES matter that they're called the same for everybody A gender neutral civil marriage would be easy and fair.

I can see why many LGBT people in Ireland are disappointed.

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But the semantics are intentional – the term 'civil partnership' is intended to exclude us from the privileged status of marriage.

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If the Iona Institute really are the only people opposing same-sex marriage, then we're pushing at an open door, and it's time we stopped listening to them and started realising our power.

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Dear Mr Ahern

I am writing again to express my dissatisfaction at the Civil Partnership Bill which will allow gay and lesbian couples to register their relationships.

The gay community deserve the same access to the legal contract of marriage as heterosexual people.

There is no valid constitutional reason for not granting the gay community equal access to the contract of marriage despite your claims that there is.

The only explanation for this discriminatory new legislation is that Fianna Fail does not believe gay people deserve equal rights under the law.

I urge the Irish government to scrap this discriminatory new legislation in favour of proper equality. As law-abiding, tax-paying citizens the gay and lesbian community deserve nothing less than FULL equality.

Yours sincerely

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Anyone who is interested should email the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and the Prime Minister Brian Cowen to condemn the Civil Partnership laws. Their emails are as follows:

Minister for Justice: dermot@dermotahern.ie
Prime Minisrer: @taoiseach.gov.ie">taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie

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"Article 41
1° The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of marriage, on which the family is founded, and to protect it against attack."

Creating an alternative to marriage is surely placing marriage under attack. Whatever one may say now, the floodgate against opposite sex civil partnership is likely to one day be breached.

Surely it would be much better to bypass civil partnerships altogether and instead help guard the institution of marriage by allowing more people to partake in that institution?

Or have the lawyers produced word games to block that one?

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The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network seemt to be seriously out of step with the feeling of the majority of the gay community on this issue. GLEN is the only gay organisation that the government consulted on the question of partnership legislation. But GLEN cannot pretend that it has a mandate to speak on behalf of anyone except its own members.

I think where GLEN made their mistake is that they are the group which originally started campaigning for civil partnership back in the 1990's at a time when Civil Partnerships were the goal of the LGBT community as full civil marriage was not on the agenda.

Since that time the goalposts have changed. Gay marriage in the Netherlands; Belgium; Spain; Norway; Sweden; Canada; South Africa; Nepal and many US states means the goalposts changed. GLEN did not realise this and do not appear to have consulted the community they were claiming to represent.

By welcoming this discriminatory legislation GLEN are basically allowing the Irish government to think they are doing the gay community a favour and in the process the campaign for equality for gay relationships has been killed like has happened in the UK.

GLEN cannot now even bring themselves to tell the Irish government that they think the CP legislation is merely a temporary measure as they know full well that if this CP law comes in then the struggle for equality is strangled.

Gay Pride was on Saturday and it seemed to be the biggest in Dublin history. You could sense the anger from the majority of the attendees at the discriminatory new law.

The Bill is not law yet. It is a real pity that the members of GLEN are ignoring the will of the majority of the people. Without their consent the Irish government may still change the bill. But GLEN don't appear to have shown any sign of actually caring about equality for the community they claim to represent. They are only interested in short term gains

GLEN do not appear to have any policies to achieve legal equality for gay relationships after this CP legislation is passed. As an organisation unless they have a plan

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