Friday's referendum saw 62.1 per cent of Irish voters say "yes" to changing the nation's constitution to define marriage as a union between two people regardless of their sex. Outside Dublin Castle, watching the results announcement in its cobblestoned courtyard, thousands of gay rights activists cheered, hugged and cried at the news.
Ireland is the first country to approve gay marriage in a popular national vote. Nineteen other countries, including most U.S. states, have legalized the practice through their legislatures and courts. Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the "overwhelming vote" against church teaching on gay marriage meant that Catholic leaders in Ireland needed urgently to find a new message and voice for reaching Ireland's young.
"It's a social revolution. ... The church needs to do a reality check right across the board," said Martin, who suggested that some church figures who argued for gay marriage's rejection came across as harsh, damning and unloving, the opposite of their intention.
David Quinn, leader of the Catholic think tank Iona Institute, said he was troubled by the fact that no political party and only a half-dozen politicians backed the "no" cause.
Political analyst Sean Donnelly, who has covered Irish referendums for decades, said Saturday's landslide marked a stunning generational shift. He noted that two decades ago in Ireland's last tortuous vote challenging a benchmark Catholic teaching, voters barely approved divorce — but only because heavy rain deterred voters in the then-conservative west. More than half of Ireland's constituencies recorded "no" majorities to divorce.
Not this time. Even far-flung Donegal in Ireland's northwest corner, renowned for its reactionary record of voting against the national mood, voted "yes" to gay marriage.
I can't thank the post anymore but SIX YEARS ago, Thor posted this thread on our own forums.
The added shame of the Vatican (probably why the Catholic church is losing more members than any other denomination) voting against the UN rights charter to stop the outlawing of gay anal sex, apparently the vatican thinks people should goto jail for them being born gay.
Thank you Vatican, you are only helping to push your young followers to leave your church and move away from organized religion.
Jesus would be ashamed of the Vatican, its glamor, its wealth and its corruption.
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A step in the right direction for social equality on a secular level and a good message to the Catholic Church that their stance on these issues in out of line with the opinion of most of their members.
Ireland joined Spain, Brazil, Portugal, France, Belgium and Mexico as predominantly Catholic countries that have now legalized same-sex unions.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
"I support human rights and equality, no question about it, and that's why, in my tweet, I said 'congrats [...] A lot of people don't like my stance, so they just blow everything out of proportion"
This guy seriously does not understand the criticism. He's decided to go with "victim status" instead. Definitely a seeded player in the "dumbest person currently elected to public office" tourney.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Good on ya Ireland. Who would have thunk that Ireland would legalize gay marriage before Australia.
Not really a huge surprise to me. Australia seems to have a fairly powerful machismo attitude in the mainstream male population. Then again, if Mexico or South Africa can legalize it, then any Western country should have no problem. (It's technically only legal in Mexico in Quintana Roo, but marriages that occur there are recognized federally).
Marriage in general is probably an institution that is going to eventually fade out in most Western countries over the course of the next few generations. It's really outlived it's usefulness in society IMO. I find it kind of ironic that the gay marriage movement is probably doing more to keep the concept relevant in Western countries, especially considering how some conservatives feel the movement is destroying it, but I digress.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Australia also has that historical "No Poofters" rule that seems to be entrenched in their legal system and social philosophy which will be hard to work out.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Ireland's Citizens Have Voted in a Landslide to Legalize Gay Marriage
