Ireland looks poised to legalize gay marriage

[Everlong]

The AP is reporting they're expecting about a 70 percent YES vote in the referendum to legalize gay marriage in Ireland: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/473ff0dc ... riage-vote

It'd be the first time a country's people voted to legalize gay marriage, and it comes in a traditionally conservative country with apparently a significant majority in favor. That's HUGE.

Good job, @Hanley! and @Kirbi!

[SlightlyJames]

Yeah, not much discussion to be had. Well in!

[Hanley!]

Yeah, I was going to make a topic about this once it had passed for sure, but it definitely seems to be happening. This is a really great day for Ireland. And for gay marriage in general.

Keep in mind that we only decriminalised homosexuality 20 years ago. This is a really quick turn around.

[prophet]

Brilliant news!

[Kirbi]

This is the best day ever!

[Hanley!]

It's official! Ireland has passed the same-sex marriage referendum by 1,201,607 votes (62.1%) to 734,300 (37.9%).

What a queer time to be an Irish person! I'm so happy that the right camp won in the end. This whole thing has me in an incredibly gay mood.

[Str8Shooter]

This is definitely welcome news and hopefully the first step in a larger movement towards other countries doing the same thing.

However, the fact that 37.9% of people don't want it to be legalized is still disturbing.

[War Daddy]

Now @Hanley! has to figure out to tell @Kirbi it's just not gonna work out

[Hanley!]

This is definitely welcome news and hopefully the first step in a larger movement towards other countries doing the same thing.

However, the fact that 37.9% of people don't want it to be legalized is still disturbing.

I know. On several occasions, I almost posted a thread here ranting about the utter horseshit the No campaign was peddling, in their effort to convince people that legalising gay marriage was wrong. And the idea that there are adults out there who actually buy into these arguments is terrifying to me.

But at the same time, there are lots of places in the world where this vote would have been a lot tighter, or places where it wouldn't have passed. We felt a million miles away from this decision even 5 years ago. And as I said already, a little over 20 years ago homosexuality itself was illegal here. I never dared to think that we'd be the first country to legalise gay marriage by popular vote.

It sucks that so many voted no, and it still bothers me, but fuck it. This is a happy day, and I'm going to celebrate it.

Now @Hanley! has to figure out to tell @Kirbi it's just not gonna work out

It's fine, I can gay marry her. We're allowed to do that now!

[Viazon]

Good for you Ireland. Good for you.

[SlightlyJames]

Is it a coincidence that it's just in time for Eurovision or did they plan that? Pretty funny either way.

[Kirbi]

A marvelous coincidence! (Or not so marvelous, considering we didn't make it through.)

Even better, yesterday (when the ballots were cast) was Harvey Milk Day. Everything's coming up Gay Rights!

[Twister]

Excellent news!

[Viazon]

Is it a coincidence that it's just in time for Eurovision or did they plan that? Pretty funny either way.

They weren't in the contest this year though, so would it have made any difference?

[SlightlyJames]

Is it a coincidence that it's just in time for Eurovision or did they plan that? Pretty funny either way.

They weren't in the contest this year though, so would it have made any difference?

Could have been planned in advance of their failure to get in. 'sjust a funny coincidence though it seems.

[Hanley!]

The Vatican have called the passing of this referendum a ‘defeat for humanity’.

Seriously, fuck the Catholic church. Just fuck them. They're the absolute worst. Why can't they realise how irrelevant they're becoming and at least try to adapt a moral system that didn't become outdated centuries ago?

Cunts. I couldn't be happier that the once ridiculously Catholic Ireland ignored their opinions on the referendum almost completely. Even many staunch Catholics ignored their opinions on this particular issue. The church doesn't have any place preaching morals in 2015.

[DBSoT]

The Vatican have called the passing of this referendum a ‘defeat for humanity’.

Seriously, fuck the Catholic church. Just fuck them. They're the absolute worst. Why can't they realise how irrelevant they're becoming and at least try to adapt a moral system that didn't become outdated centuries ago?

Cunts. I couldn't be happier that the once ridiculously Catholic Ireland ignored their opinions on the referendum almost completely. Even many staunch Catholics ignored their opinions on this particular issue. The church doesn't have any place preaching morals in 2015.

In all honesty, I don't know what you were expecting them to say. Its not like there opinion was suddenly going to change with one vote. Don't let it ruin the greatness of these results. Equality won with this vote and that's what is important.

[Everlong]

It really is strange how much of a disconnect is forming between the average Catholic and the actual structure of the church. At what point are people going to completely move away from it entirely because of issues like this?

Personally I identify more with Catholicism out of all the churches because of a lot of the rituals and stuff like that, but a lot of its more political stances are so far outdated that it's hard to get too invested.

[VaderBomb]

[Chewy]

just thought I'd point out that no one has attacked this minority group yet.

Shame on you all.