Stuckinthemilli.eu

It’s all well and good hearing the story of my family, but is there much point if there’s no change to the necessary legislation? (Well, it’s always good to show a bit of diversity). There are a number of effective ways to help (and I’m sure I’ll be adding more)

1. Sign up to the RSS feed – It’s really easy (as few as two mouse clicks) and will keep you up to date as to what’s going on; http://conorpendergrast.wordpress.com/feed/
2. Leave a comment on the blog – The simple step, just to leave a ’signature’ on the blog, and to make it obvious that people are taking note.
3. E-mail me with ideas/ suggestions/ words of support - Just fire an e-mail off to me (conorpendergrast@gmail.com), and let me know what you think, what you might do in my situation, or just to say ‘well done and keep it going’. It all helps.
4. Point someone else in the direction of this blog – Another visit, another person looking at the blog and another person taking notice does make a difference. Especially if they then read this and sign up to the RSS feed!
5. Gossip about me and my family – Yes, this sounds weird, but feel free to say “You’ll never guess what I read on the internet today. There was this guy, and he was the son of two lesbians, and they’ve been together for the whole of his life, and he’s a normal guy. But their family is treated differently because of his mums’ sexuality”. Tell your friends, your housemates, your family, the guy sitting next to you on the bus, anyone!
6. E-mail David Quinn saying that you actually do want full equality and a Civil Partnership Bill (at least). He is of the opinion that there is a “lack of any real public demand for it“. His e-mail address is dquinn@independent.ie.
7. E-mail your local TDs – First, you need to find out their e-mail addresses. This isn’t as easy as it sounds actually.  I could only find one TD Locater, over at MarriagEquality. For a list of e-mail addresses, check out this link. Once you have a nice list, compose an e-mail explaining who you are, and why you have a problem with the Civil Partnership Bill as it stands. Feel free to take a look at any of the posts on this site, and do link here as well.
8. E-mail the other interested TDs and politicians – By whom I refer to the Taoiseach Brian Cowen (taoiseach@taoiseach.ie), Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Dermot Ahern (minister@justice.ie), Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with special responsibility for childen and youth affairs (barry.andrew@oireachtas.ie) the spokespeople for justice (charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie, ciaran.cuffe@oireachtas.ie, aengus.osnodaigh@oireachtas.ie, patt.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie) and the spokespeople for children (alan.shatter@oireachtas.ie, deirdre.deburca@oireachtas.ie, ocaolain@oireachtas.ie, alex.white@oir.ie).
9. Write a letter to your local TDs – If you want to be even more effective, write a letter to your local TDs. This way you get a definite response (in the form of a reply acknowledging your letter) and a deeper impact.
10. Visit your local TD – By far the most effective thing you can do is to make an appointment with your local TDs in the constituency office and visit them. Explain to them your concerns over the Civil Partnership Bill, and ask them to raise these issues in the Dáil debates. Again, you can find addresses over at MarriagEquality. I’d advise making an appointment, so that you know when they are there.

For taking any of those actions, I thank you. It’s with the support of other people that I enjoy this campaign so much, and the overwhelmingly positive response I’ve received.

If you have more ideas for things to do, e-mail conorpendergrast@gmail.com. Thanks.