Ireland Votes Yes For Gay Marriage
Terms of Use Privacy Policy Hide
Ireland Votes Yes For Gay Marriage
Getty

Ireland Votes Yes For Gay Marriage

Trending News: A Big Cheers For Ireland Who Just Legalized Same-Sex Marriage

Why Is This Important?

Because this is the first time in history a country has voted for gay marriage.


Long Story Short

The votes poured in and it's now confirmed that Ireland is the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a referendum.


Long Story

The times they are-a-changin’ in Ireland. Just 22-years-ago you could be arrested for being gay in Ireland and now same-sex couples can get married.

BBC News is reporting that the majority of Irish people voted yes to same-sex marriage with an “unusually high” turnout.


With the vote, Ireland becomes the first country to attempt and then successfully legalize gay marriage with a referendum and is now the 20th country worldwide where same-sex marriage is legal (technically 21st as Finland already passed the law, but it will only be effective there in 2017).

For the past few months, the yes and no side have been going at each other with television and poster campaigns around the country, but the no side never managed to lead in the polls.

David Quinn, of the Catholic Iona Institute conceded defeat as a member of the no side saying it was "obviously a very impressive victory for the 'yes' side,” as quoted by BBC News.

"It was always going to be an uphill battle — there were far fewer organizations on the 'no' side, while all the major political parties were lined up on the 'yes' side and you had major corporations coming out for the first time to say how we should vote on a particular issue."

Twenty-two-years ago when being gay was illegal, Ireland probably looked a whole lot different. On a recent trip to Dublin, I saw a city that was more multicultural than I expected, thanks in part to a partnership with Brazil that allows Brazilians to study and work in Ireland. The presence of high-tech powerhouses likes Facebook and Google who were enticed to build corporate offices in Dublin are also influencing the way Ireland looks today.

However, Ireland has a ways to go before it becomes the bastion for liberal values in Europe. As pointed out by Quartz and a number of people on Twitter, Ireland may have legalized gay marriage, but abortion is still illegal in all instances unless the woman’s life is in danger. That’s right, if a woman has been raped, and even in cases of underage rape, Irish women can’t get an abortion in their country; they have to go elsewhere like to the U.K. where 3,600 women from Ireland had abortions as per 2013 numbers.

Still, let's not let that take away from today's monumental vote. This is a day to give a big toast of Jamey or Guinness to the Irish people for making history. Cheers!


Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Should the right to same-sex marriage be determined by the public with a referendum or should it be left up to elected officials?

Disrupt Your Feed: Cheers to Ireland for voting in same-sex marriage, but they really need to legalize abortion already.

Drop This Fact: The Irish vote leaves just one country in Western Europe who hasn't legalized same-sex marriage — Italy.