Ireland votes yes for marriage equality

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May 24, 2015 | Sex & Society

Ireland votes yes for marriage equality

Ireland votes yes for gay marriage

This weekend, Ireland became the first country to legalize gay marriage through a popular vote. The "yes" side won with an impressive 62.1% in support.

“I’m so proud to be Irish today,” Ireland’s Minister for Equality Aodhan O Riordain tweeted.

“We are making history but that is not what it is about,” said Maeve O’Sullivan, a 40-year-old North Dublin social worker and mother of two. “It’s about supporting people and being inclusive. It is accepting people on the most basic level, and I am over the moon.”

Same-sex Irish couples did have the right to enter into civil unions starting in 2011, but activists argued that this did not provide the full range of rights and protections afforded to married couples.

“Ireland has long been seen as a traditional conservative country,” said Tom Louwerse, director of Trinity College Dublin’s politics and public policy program. “So it shows that Ireland has become more liberal in those terms.”