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16th April 2025
04:51pm BST
CEO of Equality for Children, Ranae von Meding is fighting for change for LGBTQ+ families across Ireland.
The mum recently appeared on Ireland AM to highlight the lack of engagement from the current government in order to progress the crucial and urgent legislation needed for families, including her own.
Despite progress with the last government and the enactment of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2024 (AHR) last July, the provisions have not yet been commenced, nor has the promised amending legislation been brought forward.
This means that the majority of children born to LGBTQ+ families in Ireland remain in a legal limbo.
There is currently no way to have a legal connection to both of their parents.
10 years on from Marriage Equality and this is an "appalling situation" for so many queer families across Ireland to be in.
von Meding spoke about the proposed legislation and highlighted that even once the AHR act is commenced, it will not cover all families.
"The amending legislation, which has been promised again and again, has still not been seen by any of the advocacy groups.
"The way I see it, this is a grave error on the part of Minister Carroll MacNeil and the other departments involved.
"We have seen what happens when the government refuses to engage with those directly impacted by legislation."
"Something gets missed, in this case that ‘something’ is an actual child, and then families, ordinary citizens of Ireland, are forced to take the state to court.
She said it is a "waste of time, energy, and resources" when meaningful engagement with key stakeholders could have avoided this.
The mum added: "We have reached out countless times to the new Government including the department of Health, Children and Justice in order to offer our lived experience and expertise in this area, but to date it has been radio silence from them.
von Meding continued, “We have seen lengthy delays with previous legislation in this area, in some cases delays of over five years from enactment to commencement. This is unacceptable when we are talking about children’s lives and their right to a legal relationship with both of their parents.
"We cannot and will not let this happen again and urge the government to think of the children of LGBTQ+ families in Ireland who, till now have been viewed as second class citizens.”
Equality for Children, and other advocacy groups call on Minister Carroll Mac Neil and the government to honour the commitments of their predecessors and commence the AHR Act without further delay and also introduce the promised amending legislation to close the accepted issues for queer parents.
Every day of inaction affects real families and real children.
Sign the petition here.
