Madam, - It is annoying when democracy risks preventing you from achieving what you want. That is why Owen Corrigan and Michael Keary (Letters, Dec 30th) object to Mike Heelan's suggestion (Dec 27th) for a referendum on introducing same-sex civil partnerships.
Evidently Messrs Corrigan and Keary simply don't trust their fellow-citizens, for they tell us that the opinion of the Irish people is "neither here nor there"; that sometimes the "will of the majority cannot, and should not, have any bearing on vitally important issues"; that "it is the State's duty to ensure equality", not the people's.
These totalitarian, anti-democratic views would be embraced by every thuggish dictator in the world, from Kim Jong ll to Saddam Hussein to Robert Mugabe to Fidel Castro, men not renowned for their friendliness to gays and lesbians.
As for the issue at hand, you can equally make the case that homosexuals are already as free as heterosexuals to marry the opposite sex, and that both groups are equally unfree to marry the same sex.
"Equality" is all a matter of determining what should be equal to what.
Much better to trust the Irish people's innate common sense, goodness and compassion in deciding whether to introduce same-sex civil partnerships, than to foist some agenda-driven solution because you fear a referendum's "wrong" outcome. - Yours, etc,
TONY ALLWRIGHT, Killiney, Co Dublin.
Madam, - The debate provoked by the introduction of civil partnerships in the UK needs to be placed in a wider social context. Many people live together in financially dependent ways and this can give rise to injustices and inequality.
The injustices to which same-sex couples are subject are in part natural in that they cannot have children, and in part fiscal and financial.
However, the fiscal and financial inequities are no different from those faced by others who live together as a household where no sexual relationship is involved, siblings or spinsters for instance. It is as unjust that they should be subject to tax if one dies and leaves their property to the other after years of being together as one economic unit as it is for someone who lives with his or her gay partner.
These issues can be addressed in an uncontentious manner, if the right to register what is essentially a financial dependence is accorded in all such cases, whether the relationship is a sexual one or not.
There is no need to celebrate the registration of such partnerships with State-sponsored ceremonies that are indistinguishable from marriage. Lodging a legal document should suffice. Matrimony is something different and special because potentially it involves children. It should be kept as such. However, if having entered into a partnership agreement they choose to have a party, who is to stop them? - Yours, etc,
JULIAN GAISFORD-ST. LAWRENCE, Howth, Co Dublin.