Nearly 1000 people demonstrated in central Dublin blasting the government for refusing to give gay people equal rights.

In January the government announced legislation to allow same-sex couples to form civil partnerships and said that it would be presented to Irish lawmakers in April, but so far the bill has not been filed.

The legislation would allow lesbian and gay couples to register with the State and be recognized in areas such as pensions, inheritances and taxes. But they would not be allowed to become joint parents and would also be denied dozens of other benefits and responsibilities of marriage. The bill also would specify that civil partnerships are not marriages as defined by the Irish Constitution.

The demonstration was organized by Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Noise which called the proposed bill “a half measure.”

“We don’t want crumbs from the master’s table, we want the whole cake. We want the wedding cake,” said  LGBT Noise spokesperson Eloise McInerney.

Rory O’Neill, another Irish gay leader, also blasted the government plan.

“Either our relationships are equal to heterosexual relationships or they are not,” he told demonstrators. “Our State asks of us all the responsibilities of citizenship. In return I expect the commensurate rights,” he said to applause and cheers.

The government has dismissed calls from LGBT groups to equalize marriage, saying it was prevented from doing so by the Constitution. A clause in the constitution says the government must protect the institution of marriage, but it does not define who makes up a married couple.

Recent public opinion polls show that 84 percent are in favor of some recognition of same-sex couples with 53 percent saying they would allow gay couples to marry.

It also found widespread physical attacks and rampant school bullying toward the LGBT population.

The report, Supporting LGBT Lives: A Study of the Mental Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People, is the largest study into LGBT mental health ever carried out in Ireland.

The report’s authors said that the study clearly shows “the negative effects of stigmatization, harassment and discrimination – what is termed ‘minority stress’ – on LGBT people.”

Twenty-five percent of respondents said they had been physically attacked because of their sexuality and 40 percent had been threatened with violence.

The study found that almost 80 percent had been verbally abused because of their sexual identity and 58 per cent had been bullied in school. More than 30 percent said that they had been bullied by teachers or staff.

Twenty percent of those surveyed said that the bullying in school was so bad they frequently skipped classes out of fear for their safety.

The study, released by Health Minister Mary Harney, was conducted by the Children’s Research Center at Trinity College and the School of Education at University College Dublin.

The bill is modeled after Britain’s Civil Partnership law, which grants all of the rights of marriage except the name.

In Dublin, Government Chief Whip Pat Carey said that the Irish legislation would allow gay and lesbian couples to have their unions registered in clerk’s offices.

Partners would have to be 18-years of age or over, not be related and not be in other committed relationships such as opposite-sex marriages.

Gay and lesbian couples intending to have civil partnerships will have to give 90-days notice of their wish to register.

The legislation covers areas such as pensions and property rights for partners and it provides for ending relationships which fail.

The government has dismissed calls from LGBT groups to bring in full marriage ,saying it prevented from doing so by the Irish constitution, which states the government must protect the institution of marriage.

Recent public opinion polls show that 84 percent are in favor of some recognition of same-sex couples, while 53 percent would allow gay couples to marry.

The bill is expected to pass Parliament with the help of the opposition Greens Party, but 20 members of the governing Fianna Fail Party have said they will vote against it.

“There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children,” Ulster Democratic Unionist Party MP Iris Robinson said during a debate in the House.

Then in a radio interview, Robinson said that homosexuality is “disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked and vile.”

She also offered to put gays and lesbians with Dr. Paul Miller, a controversial psychiatrist who claims he can make them straight.

In addition to serving in the British Parliament, she is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Her husband, Peter Robinson, is leader of the regional government in Northern Ireland.

The remarks drew sharp criticism from LGBT groups and other politicians in both Belfast and London. Robinson has refused to apologize, but Dr. Miller has since resigned as a part-time adviser for the Ulster Democratic Unionist Party.

Demands for a public rebuke of Robinson were posted on Brown’s Prime Ministerial Web site, growing to more than 15,000 calls for her to be censured.

But Thursday, Brown’s office said there is no provision constitutionally for the Prime Minister to rebuke a Member of Parliament.

“[Individual members] are accountable to their electorate for their own comments,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

“The government’s vision is an equal, inclusive society in Northern Ireland, where everyone is treated with respect and where opportunity for all remains a priority,” it said.

The bill to be presented to Parliament later this year will allow same-sex couples over the age of 18 to enter into civil partnerships. New rights for unmarried opposite-sex couples were also announced. 

Gay and lesbian couples intending to have civil partnerships will have to give 90-days notice of their wish to register.

The legislation covers areas such as pensions and property rights for partners and it provides for ending relationships which fail.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said that despite a strong lobbying effort by gays for full marriage, the Irish Constitution prevents redefining marriage.

A clause in the constitution says the government must protect the institution of marriage.

Eamon Ryan of the Green Party said Greens would support the bill but had hoped that the legislation had gone further.

Last year two government committees recommended civil partnerships but without many of the rights of marriage, including the right of couples to adopt children.

Recent public opinion polls show that 84 percent are in favor of some recognition of same-sex couples while 53 percent would allow gay couples to marry.

Ahern said he hoped the bill would be passed and put into effect by spring 2009.

The legislation would be similar to the civil partnership law already in effect in the UK. 

The number of gays having civil partnerships in England and Wales has leveled off. In 2006, the first full year in which civil partnerships could be formed, 16,106 couples were joined together.  Last year though, it dropped by about 46 percent to 8,728.

LGBT rights groups said the 2007 figures likely represent the norm because so many longtime couples had entered civil unions when they first became available.