Despite being legal in the rest of the United Kingdom, and most of Western Europe, same-sex marriage still remains illegal in Northern Ireland. If couples get married somewhere else in the UK, and then come back to Northern Ireland, their marriage will still not be recognized. Gay activists have been trying for years to change this. Gay couple Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles bought the the issue to court last year. A judge ruled in early December he would give a decision "after Christmas"... and one has yet to be given.
A brave 15-year-old Irish teenager has taken to YouTube to demand his local Member of the National Assembly, Gordan Dunn, explain why he voted against the Freedom To Marry Measure this past April. The measure would have allowed the teenager's same-sex parents to finally enter into a marriage legally recognized by Northern Ireland.
The teenager personally handed the letter to Dunn himself.
"To me it seems perfectly reasonable a democratic government should try to give all its citizens the same legal entitlements," he reads. "It seems perfectly reasonable to me my parents, who have been in a stable relationship for twenty-one years and who have two sons, should be supported by the government. What gives you the right to take from my brother and me the right to legal protection for my family?"
As of the video's posting, Gordan Dunn had yet to respond to the letter.