Ireland votes overwhelmingly in favor of gay marriage

Also note, not all Catholics are anti-gay. I can’t speak for Ireland, but in the US there are many Catholic congregations which are gay friendly, and anecdotally there are many gay priests.

My uncle is a gay Catholic and was/is active in the church. He has many musical gifts and so has many times lead the choir or played music for the church. I do know he had an encounter a decade or so with an anti-gay priest when he moved to around Chicago. But growing up in Austin seemed positive. And even in Chicago he had the support of the other church members.

In my experience it is the Baptist and Evangelicals that seem to have the most irrational fear and exclusion with gays.

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I was once of the last people to vote last night. I was in the UK for a course all week, and had planned my flight home to get me here in plenty of time to vote. So when I got to the airport with a colleague, and she looked at the the board to see our flight was delayed by 90 minutes I nearly swore a blind streak.

I arrived in Dublin at 9.15 and walked into the polling booth at 9.55. Even though my vote wasn’t needed to win, I love my country and take my democratic responsibility seriously. A landslide victory with 60% of the vote is more democratic than one with the usual 30% (and interestingly the other referendum on the ballot only had a 39% turnout).

Dublin today had an amazing atmosphere, energised and positive in a way I’ve not experienced in a long time. We made history in so many ways this weekend and I’ve never been prouder of my country and my fellow citizens.

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A number of prominent members of the Irish clergy supported the yes campaign. Archbishop for Dublin Diarmuid Martin said the Church needs a reality check today.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making the effort. True, yours was only one vote, but so were everyone else’s.

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I’ve had tears of joy coming and going since like 9.45 this morning when the first reports of overwhelming yes results came in. One of my favourite aunts - a huge influence on my politics and my on activism was a lesbian. She lived in London with her long-term partner and their son in one of the most loving and fantastic families I’ve ever seen. She died about a year and a half ago and I wish she could have lived to see this. I voted yes for her and all my friends and family and colleagues who deserved the same protections and rights that I have just because my brain chemistry works one way and theirs slightly differently

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I’ve never been more proud to be of Irish descent (and that’s saying something). Glory by association.

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Yeah, you might get ex-communicated from the church (or at least you used to), but in my experience it isn’t the Catholics pushing anti-sodomy laws still, but the Protestants and Mormons.

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Damn, that map is depressing, hopefully it’s as inaccurate as the poll results in Ireland.

From the previous thread, although it isn’t current anymore :smiley:

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Nice to see the UK topping a good league table for a change…

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I don’t get why my country of Luxembourg’s rated so low with 43%. Homosexual marriage has been legal since January 1st and is completely equal to heterosexual marriage. Even our prime minister married his fiancé (both male) two weeks ago. Can’t get more accepting than that!

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It’s more than just LGB positive laws. Looking at http://www.rainbow-europe.org/, Luxembourg does badly regarding trans* people. I would have legal issues with moving there, no matter how nice the people there are to me.

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The Gender Recognition laws here are in the process of reform. I believe that is what the big failing on that map is for Ireland. Last I heard the bill was being amended in a way which would improve it greatly from the earlier versions. It’s a glaring inadequacy here but one that the legislature is actually committed to improve a great deal, though perhaps not quite what we would like.

It will also, yet again, sharpen the contradictions in this state that the state itself while funding education and health doesn’t always control it: the practice in hospitals and schools can be dictated by unaccountable boards often stuffed with relics. Extremist relics.

See why we have all those religious symbols in the schools that everyone votes in.

And the other really big cancerous failing: the equality act allows religious groups to discriminate in employment in order to protect their ethos. This is clearly in contravention of European law (ECHR is part of Irish law and can be pleaded in courts here) and is going to go sooner or later.

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Ugh, either your example is contained to Ireland, in which case we can expect less reform elsewhere, or it’s universal in which case we can expect entrenched extremists to continue to pervert the course of progress. I see some really shit figures out there. Hopefully the acceleration of change can overtake these patently surmountable difficulties.

My wife grew up in Rathfarnham in the 80’s, went to Catholic school (hers was run by nuns!), and her and many of her friends identify as Catholic and believing in God. Granted, they are what I would dub “social Catholics” (Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals are the only time they ever get into a church… Oh, and baptisms, communions and confirmations) But they all supported this bill, as well.

It might be due to policies concerning transgender and intersex individuals (the map takes into account more than just same-sex marriage laws).

Wat is St. Louis? I have a few friends who went there.

(I went to CUS on Leeson Street)

No, Notre Dame.

Attitudes are shifting all over, but I think the visibility of the opposition depends on where you live. What I find, though, is that increasingly the opposition consists of people who don’t want to talk about their opposition because they don’t want to be challenged on it.

That, I think, is why there’s been a shift away from efforts to stop same-sex marriage and more focus put on so-called “religious freedom bills” that seem intended to allow people who are opposed to it cover.

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