Equality for Children campaigners will meet with Minister for Health Simon Harris as he signs regulations to commence Sections 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act, meaning that some same-sex parents will have both their names on their child’s birth certificate – this does not mean every same-sex parent, however.

As Equality for Children shared, “From May 5 2020, some children born to LGBT+ families in Ireland, will for the first time be provided with a pathway to have their relationship with their non-biological parent recognised. This means that, for the first time, some children of LGBT+ families will be able to access the same rights as children of heterosexual families in Ireland with regards to their citizenship rights, their passport, their birth certificate, their health, their financial security, their tax status and inheritance rights.

“The long-awaited commencement of the CFRA 2015 will come as an enormous relief to hundreds of LGBT+ families in Ireland who will, after May 2020, be able to sleep at night knowing that their children will no longer face discrimination from the state because their parents are LGBT+.”

However, as already stated this does not cover all children of same-sex parents. As Equality for Children shared, “The CFRA provides pathways for children of LGBT+ families to have a legal relationship with both parents if, and only if, they are conceived using a clinic in Ireland, their parents are both women, they use a traceable sperm donor and the child is born in Ireland.”

The list of children still not protected by the Act are those who:

• Have two male parents
• Have a transgender parent
• Are born via surrogacy
• Are born via reciprocal IVF
• Are born outside of Ireland
• Are conceived in an international clinic
• Are conceived via at-home insemination
• Are conceived with a known donor
• Are conceived with an anonymous donor

For that reason, there will be a demonstration held prior to the signing outside the Department of Health at 2.30pm today.

Come and protest with us tomorrow 4th November at 14:30 in Dublin, ahead of signing the commencement for the Children and Family Relationship Act.
This bill leaves many of our children out, #stillnotequal https://t.co/V7pKOM91Pc #equalchildren

— Equality for Children (@equalchildren) November 3, 2019

Speaking in advance of the signing, Minister Harris stated, “Today is a really important day. We will sign the regulations to commence parts of the Children and Family Relationships Act. This is something many families have fought for for years and I am so pleased we now have a start date. When we voted in the Marriage Equality referendum, we voted for every relationship to be treated equally.

“However, it is clear our legislation still needs to evolve. When I met with LGBT families a number of weeks ago, they pointed out the impractical realities of our current laws and while we know some of their issues will be addressed through the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill, there are areas that require some consideration. I have some proposals as to how to look at these matters but I want to discuss these with the families first and hope to make some progress on this next week.”

On Monday @SimonHarrisTD will be signing the commencement order for CFRA but it will leave so many children without legal recognition still. Not good enough.https://t.co/PqmBiNbVdi#stillnotequal #protectourchildren @LGBT_ie @TheEllenShow @EllenPage pic.twitter.com/wPxWaJtpVL

— Equality for Children (@equalchildren) November 2, 2019

Ranae von Meding, Equality For Children campaign founder, shared, “I want to be clear that today is not a win for us. The signing of this commencement order has already been delayed seven times over the last five years. And only a fraction of LGBT+ families and their children will be covered by it. My family along with many others will continue to be left behind.

“It is not as has been reported today – as ‘equality for same-sex families’. It is some equality for some LGBT+ families but only if you meet the criteria. And many of us, unfortunately, do not. We will continue to campaign and lobby until a real solution to provide equality to all our children is realised.”