Gay people have no legitimate claim to marriage

Dear Editor, Whatever her personal views on same-sex marriage may be, Sarah Carey, in her article of February 6, displays a quality of reasoning and logic (especially in her criticism of the reaction of the pro-same-sex marriage lobby to the recent case involving RTÉ and some prominent pro-traditional marriage supporters) that is all too often absent in the comment and analysis columns of our national secular quality newspapers.

As for the above-mentioned case, it's difficult to avoid being utterly bemused when someone can become a kind of national hero (at least in the eyes of elements in our national media and some political circles, as well as some of ‘the great and the good’) as a consequence of having publicly defamed some of those with whose views he disagrees.

While all decent people will condemn utterly the kind of abuse so eloquently described recently by some prominent gays (including two TDs), it's impossible to see how they can have a legitimate claim to a social institution that is specifically designed to reflect sexual complementarity (which is not the same thing as sexual orientation) – and sexual complementarity, by definition, exists only between men and women.

Yours, etc.,

Hugh Gibney,

Athboy,

Co. Meath.