Sen. Averil Power proposes amendment to protect gay teachers.

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Originally Posted by tonic

And your basis for this piece of brilliance is?

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Try the opposition to gay marriage. Ireland should have taken the oppertunity to do what Finland did and go for gender neutral marriage. Also for some bizarre reason they fought a transsexual in court so as to try to prevent transsexuals getting rights. That mean't Ireland is the last country in Europe to have no rights for that group. What reason the government had for that is beyond me, short of vindictiveness against a vulnerable minority.

More importantly they did not bring about the referendum on children's rights, which is a disgraceful lack of action in light of the child abuse scandals.

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Originally Posted by Hooch

Reuters published this piece late last year

Double lives for gay teachers in Ireland | Reuters

I believe there is a thread on it somewhere.

Fianna Fáil proposes bill to protect rights of gay teachers · TheJournal.ie

Fianna Fáil's Averil Power has proposed an amendment to the Employment Equality Act that would prohibit schools from discriminating against employees based on their sexual orientation, currently most schools can get away with it by claiming that homosexuality runs contrary to their religious ethos.

The wording of the proposed amendment can be found in the link.

The INTO has been pushing for this for sometime and it has strong support within the Labour Party. Though comments in this thread will inevitably draw attention to the fact that FF did nothing about this for the 14 years they were in power I welcome this bill, it's never the wrong time to make the right decision.

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Are FF actually moving further from their grass roots - The party of conservative, middle Irish republicanism sure loves to push a Liberal, Europhillic agenda.

i am not arguing against this - i just find it bizarre that this is a battleground that FF want to rally their supporters to

not a lot of votes in the Gay Teacher demographic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hooch

Reuters published this piece late last year

Double lives for gay teachers in Ireland | Reuters

I believe there is a thread on it somewhere.

Fianna Fáil proposes bill to protect rights of gay teachers · TheJournal.ie

Fianna Fáil's Averil Power has proposed an amendment to the Employment Equality Act that would prohibit schools from discriminating against employees based on their sexual orientation, currently most schools can get away with it by claiming that homosexuality runs contrary to their religious ethos.

The wording of the proposed amendment can be found in the link.

The INTO has been pushing for this for sometime and it has strong support within the Labour Party. Though comments in this thread will inevitably draw attention to the fact that FF did nothing about this for the 14 years they were in power I welcome this bill, it's never the wrong time to make the right decision.

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Seems reasonable and overdue.

Hope it doesn't get caught up in culture wars.

Better chance if it comes from FF than Labour - anything Labour proposes in this area right now is toxic.

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Originally Posted by Asparagus

Are FF actually moving further from their grass roots - The party of conservative, middle Irish republicanism sure loves to push a Liberal, Europhillic agenda.

i am not arguing against this - i just find it bizarre that this is a battleground that FF want to rally their supporters to

not a lot of votes in the Gay Teacher demographic

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I think you'd be surprised at just how liberal minded a lot of the FF grassroots is, I support full civil liberty for all citizens as laid out by the Bunreacht of '37.

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Originally Posted by Warrior of Destiny

I think you'd be surprised at just how liberal minded a lot of the FF grassroots is, I support full civil liberty for all citizens as laid out by the Bunreacht of '37.

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What's left of their grassroots that is... I'd say the organisation isn't what it was 10 or 15 years ago to say the least. They should do us all a favour and go the way of the PD's...

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Originally Posted by Asparagus

Are FF actually moving further from their grass roots - The party of conservative, middle Irish republicanism sure loves to push a Liberal, Europhillic agenda.

i am not arguing against this - i just find it bizarre that this is a battleground that FF want to rally their supporters to

not a lot of votes in the Gay Teacher demographic

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I agree with this.

I suspect that Micheál Martin is using what remains of Fianna Fáil to promote a basically liberal agenda, safe in the knowledge that no Fianna Fáil leader can be evicted by the grassroots.

Today's IT has more of Martin's comments on the bill.

FF Bill in support of gay teachers - The Irish Times - Mon, Feb 20, 2012

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Originally Posted by Warrior of Destiny

I think you'd be surprised at just how liberal minded a lot of the FF grassroots is, I support full civil liberty for all citizens as laid out by the Bunreacht of '37.

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You'd be a dublin FFer so - I've been at a few country FF cumann meetings my friend, and the liberal agenda is not exactly at the forefront of their priorities...

And hey i am not passing judgement - i just don't think your common or garden FF diehard is as "L.A." as you might think....

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Originally Posted by Panopticon

I agree with this.

I suspect that Micheál Martin is using what remains of Fianna Fáil to promote a basically liberal agenda, safe in the knowledge that no Fianna Fáil leader can be evicted by the grassroots.

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I agree but Its a dumb strategy - he went all over ireland to get a new approach and i think he has misjudged his party faithful

There are 40% of the population who would jump at the chance to support a back to basics FF.

By back to basics i mean the pre Ahern days

Socially Left of Center
Economically Conservative
Politically Republican
Spiritually Catholic

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Originally Posted by Asparagus

I agree but Its a dumb strategy - he went all over ireland to get a new approach and i think he has misjudged his party faithful

There are 40% of the population who would jump at the chance to support a back to basics FF.

By back to basics i mean the pre Ahern days

Socially Left of Center
Economically Conservative
Politically Republican
Spiritually Catholic

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At what point before Ahern was FF socially left of centre?