Now that England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland all have marriage equality, activists are looking to Northern Ireland to follow suit. But they're opposed to a proposed public referendum on the issue.

Currently, marriage equality is deadlocked in Northern Ireland’s Stormont Assembly. The UK's Labour Party has suggested holding a national vote in order to settle it once and for all—as was done in the rest of Ireland.

But local LGBT groups say that would mean spending time, resources and money on campaigning that could be better spent helping those in need. And then there's the whole issue of putting civil rights up to a vote.

"We welcome any and all opportunities to speak with political leaders about the state of LGBT equality in Northern Ireland," reads a joint statement by The Rainbow Project, HereNI, Cara-Friend, SAIL and Gender Jam NI. “However, we fundamentally disagree with Labour’s suggestion that the on-going and unlawful denial of the right to marry for LGBT people in Northern Ireland should or could be resolved by a public referendum."

"Of course we were delighted to see the ‘yes’ victory in the Republic of Ireland and many of us were deeply involved with that campaign," they added. "But it would be inappropriate to suggest that the referendum campaign could be replicated in the North."

The LGBT groups went on to say that "it is wholly unacceptable to expect the LGBT community in Northern Ireland, in the face of the most organised opposing forces in the UK, to secure a win in a referendum which would not be proposed in any other region of the UK.”

Their hope is for marriage equality to pass through normal legislation, as was done in England, Wales and Scotland. Norther Ireland's same-sex marriage ban is also under judicial review, with a ruling possibly this fall.

Amnesty International has said the current ban has turned Northern Ireland into a “discriminatory backwater for the gay and lesbian community.”

h/t: Pink News