Lights, Camera... Equality!
Following on from the success of our short film "Sinead's Hand", Marriage Equality wants to make a new short film and we need YOUR help to do it!
The film about children of same sex couples will challenge, entertain and stir the passions of people in Ireland who believe in equality for all. The message is clear - our society is not as equal as we believe it to be.
Over the last 3 years Marriage Equality has made real progress in our campaign. This year Civil Partnership was introduced, and this was a step in the right direction. BUT it is not marriage.
Civil partnership:
- Does not allow children to have a legally recognised relationship with their parents - only the biological one. This causes all sorts of problems with schools and hospitals as well as around guardianship, access and custody.
- Is not like marriage, where if a house is severely damaged e.g. by fire, hardship to a spouse is taken into account in determining the payment of a relief housing grant. These provisions have not been extended to civil partners, leaving them almost literally "out in the cold" if they find themselves in this unfortunate situation.
- Does not confer an equivalent legal status to "engagement" for civil partners. What this means is that the legal protections afforded to engaged heterosexual couples in relation to gifts and property of an engaged couple who end their relationship, do not apply to same-sex couples planning to register a civil partnership.
Marriage would give these rights and security to hundreds of families around Ireland.
Art and Creativity play an important role in the Marriage Equality campaign. We know that creative and innovative short films can have an impact on our campaign. Our last short film "Sinead's Hand" has been viewed by over 348,000 people to date. And we know it can change attitudes. 3,000 people have joined our campaign via Facebook, getting involved to lobby their TDs and attending our events.
Marriage Equality wants to make a short film that is cutting edge, brings a new angle to the campaign and attracts attention from the general public, broader than the LGBT community and we need your help to make it happen.
The film will be featured on our website as well as the Marriage Equality YouTube channel and Facebook pages. We also hope to buy TV space to show the video to reach as many people as possible.
The aim of this film it to engage people and motivate them to get involved with the campaign so that we can all make marriage equality a reality and make sure that same sex couples, our families and our children have the same rights as anyone else and are not discriminated against because of sexuality.
100% of the money that supporters generously donate will be invested in the production and distribution of this short film. Marriage Equality's core costs are funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, so none of the donations received will be spent on administration. It will all go directly into the film production.
The film costs €10,437 to make and we have secured a generous €5,000 from The Atlantic Philanthropies and a further generous €2,500 from The Community Foundation of Ireland towards these costs. They believe in this project and so do we. We therefore need all our supporters to invest what they can so we can raise the balance of €2,937. Can you help us?
We will even reward you for your investment. If you donate, this is what we will give you:-
- €5+ :: an e-mail thank you from the Director of Marriage Equality and a warm feeling when you are invited to your lesbian and gay friends' weddings.
- €10+ :: a Marriage Equality badge, an e-mail thank you from the Director of Marriage Equality and a warm feeling when you are invited to your lesbian and gay friends' weddings
- €20+ :: a We are Family poster, a Marriage Equality badge an e-mail thank you from the Director of Marriage Equality and a warm feeling when you are invited to your lesbian and gay friends' weddings
- €50+ :: a Marriage Equality T-shirt, a We are Family poster, a Marriage Equality badge, an e-mail thank you from the Director of Marriage Equality and a warm feeling when you are invited to your lesbian and gay friends' weddings,
- €100+ :: your name included in the 'Thank You' list in End credits of the film, a Marriage Equality T-shirt, a We are Family poster, a Marriage Equality badge, an e-mail thank you from the Director of Marriage Equality and a warm feeling when you are invited to your lesbian and gay friends' weddings,
This is an exciting and important project that will use film, social media and traditional media to spread an important message - same sex families deserve equality and we all need to do something now to make it a reality.
To find out how you can invest in this project click on the link here
This project is generously supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and The Community Foundation for Ireland.