Yes to equality - for the sake of the children

'Y-E-S. Yes!
Yes? Mammy, why does your badge say Yes?'

'Well, you know the way sometimes you have a day off school and help Mammy to vote on important questions? I want everyone to vote Yes on the next important question.'

'Why, what's the question?'

Now, what on earth do I say to that?

My children KNOW gay couples. They know that they are simply two people in love, the same way Mammy and Daddy are in love.

They KNOW that everybody is just as good as everyone else. That it's not kind to treat someone differently because of the colour of their skin, their need for a wheelchair or hearing aid, or the fact that they have a Jedward lunchbox.

How do I explain to them that some adults do not know as much as they do? That some adults are hanging desperately to a notion of superiority,  of worthiness, at the expense of other people's happiness. That joining together and celebrating marriage between any two people in love is merely a first step in allowing ALL couples to hold hands in public, without fear of actual violence.

Aged 6.5 and 5, my kids have not yet learned to fear difference. They see things as simply as many adults can't. Love is love, and that's that.

So do I tell them what the referendum is about? Honestly, I would prefer them to learn about it in their history books. I would like them to come to me in ten years' time and marvel that they were alive at a time when LGBT people were NOT allowed to marry.

WHY should I have to explain to them that some consider gay people to be incapable of marriage, or unworthy of it? Why would I expose them to such unthinking bigotry and tell them that this negativity exists in the world? By exposing them to hatred, do I run the risk of some of it staying with them?

They are too young to be faced with the harsh realities of those who attempt to control the rights of others. Those who think that LGBT people are 'equal, but...'

So please, vote Yes in the marriage referendum. Bring humanity a step forward, take a step to uniting our society. Don't try to convince another generation that society consists of 'them' and 'us'.

We listen to so many people telling us, without supporting evidence, that gay relationships are harmful to children. But can fear, intolerance, hatred be good for anyone? Won't somebody, please, think of my children?