In a historic victory for marriage equality, Ireland has become the
first country in the world to approve same-sex marriage via popular
vote. By a 62-to-38 margin, the people of Ireland voted a resounding
"yes" for equality in a national referendum on Friday. This signals what
some are calling a "social revolution" in the traditionally
conservative Catholic country. Ireland’s constitution will now be
amended to say that two people can marry "without distinction as to
their sex."
The turnout was one of the highest in the country’s history
and came after a robust civic campaign led by human rights activists,
trade unions, celebrities and employers. Ireland’s referendum reflects a
sea change in a country where homosexuality was decriminalized just two
decades ago and where 70 percent of the population still identifies as
Roman Catholic. We are joined from Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Gavin
Boyd, the policy and advocacy manager at The Rainbow Project.
An interview by 'Democracy Now' with campaigners, voters and officials in Ireland follows here.
2 comments:
Wry comment from Mary Kenny in the Irish Independent (25 May0:
"The most amusing aspect, for me, was observing old Lefties who themselves wouldn't touch wedlock with a barge-pole (how well I remember those conversations in the 1970s when the DE RIGEUR Leftie position was that marriage was a bourgeois repressive institution which Engels had proved was merely a vehicle for the transmission of capitalist property) suddenly telling us that marriage was the measure of all good."
She has a point even if that wasn't the point. When gay couples split up they can now sue each other for their share of their property and automatically inherit each orther's property if one dies without making a will.
Yes, both you and Mary Kenny have a valid point, no doubt. I also feel it quite ironic, however I imagine many voters felt that it was a step towards egalitarianism of a kind. Roll on socialism when all will be free to cohabit with whomever they wish, in whatever fashion they choose.
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