Karen + Emma
I’m Karen Corcoran. I met my wife Emma in 2012. I knew very early on that I had met ‘the one’ - it was like a curtain had lifted on what life is actually about. We got married in 2016, pretty much as soon as Marriage Equality became law. We never sat down to discuss whether or not to have children, it was just always taken for granted that we would try to become parents. I remember seeing my wife holding a baby, a couple of months into dating her, and thinking to myself I want her to be the mother to my children.
Like a lot of couples our path to parenthood was a bit of a rollercoaster. We were going to try at home insemination, but the logistics didn’t work out. In the end, we chose to do IUI with a really great fertility clinic, who provided much needed support and guidance. The great thing was that when we hit the ‘bumps on the road’ one of us was able to carry that burden, while the other one took time out to work through the issue.
It was all so worth it, when 2 years ago our daughter Ameila was born. She is incredibly chatty and funny. She loves making us laugh, whether it’s by giving us a hard stare or by singing “old Macdonald had a farm...banana pants”. That said, her favourite song is currently “Shake it Off”, she’ll dance all day to that.
Like all boisterous 2 year olds, she has a wild side - she loves to run while screaming at the top of her lungs with her friend. No matter what kind of day I have had at work, as soon as I open the front door my heart lifts as I hear Amelia shouting “Mammy’s home!”. She makes everything magical, and I love seeing the world through her eyes, it’s like I am learning about it all over again.
We’re one of the lucky couples who are covered under the provisions of the Children and Family Relationship Act. While I am grateful that both of our daughter’s parents are now legally recognised, I shouldn’t have to feel grateful.
We found it really difficult to work through the bureaucracy and red tape that comes with the CFRA. In the end, we made a decision to hire a solicitor to help us with it. I think it is incredibly unfair to have to go to court to earn the right to be a parent to your child, it is such a flawed system. Equality is a huge issue for the LGBTQ+ community and it's maddening that our families are discriminated against in such a clear way. Our children are born out of love, and that is the only thing that should matter. The fact that we need to fight at all is disgusting, and is discrimination no matter what way it is phrased.
