Katherine Zappone has been a Senator since 2011, having been nominated by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. She was the first openly lesbian Oireachtas member of the Oireachtas and the first member in a recognised same-sex relationship. She and her wife, Ann Louise Gilligan, founded the An Cosán project in west Tallaght which supports active engagement in social change through education. In 2006, the couple unsuccessfully sought recognition in the High Court for their Canadian marriage. They were prominent in the same-sex marriage referendum in May 2015. Zappone is formerly a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission, chief executive of the National Women's Council of Ireland, and a lecturer in the ethics, theology and education at Trinity College Dublin.