Options
Irish Constitutional Referendum on Gay Marriage - May 2015
irishfeen
Posts: 10,025 Forum Member
✭✭
Proposed Constitutional Change announced today by the Irish Government "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex".
Historic vote on Gay Marriage is to take place in Ireland in May 2015 - A Country where homosexuality was a crime until the early 1990's. Current polls suggest about 70% support for the vote but it will be closer as young people are not as likely to vote.
All political parties in the state has come out to support the vote including the traditional conservative parties of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Last Sunday our Minister for Health on state radio revealed he was gay - the first ever openly gay cabinet minister. The world is truly changing for the better - I'm not gay but I fully support equality for "all the children of the state" as our forefathers here in Ireland declared.
People might say this is happening across the globe but Ireland voting is truly historic .. The once deeply conservative, backward state which was ruled by the Catholic church with an iron fist is finally shaking off the shackles of the past... Our Taoiseach (PM) recently drank with his party colleagues during a Christmas party in a Gay bar in Dublin - something absolutely unthinkable even 10 years ago.
It's a YES from me and all going well a YES from the Irish people - I will be a proud Irishman the night it passes!
Historic vote on Gay Marriage is to take place in Ireland in May 2015 - A Country where homosexuality was a crime until the early 1990's. Current polls suggest about 70% support for the vote but it will be closer as young people are not as likely to vote.
All political parties in the state has come out to support the vote including the traditional conservative parties of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Last Sunday our Minister for Health on state radio revealed he was gay - the first ever openly gay cabinet minister. The world is truly changing for the better - I'm not gay but I fully support equality for "all the children of the state" as our forefathers here in Ireland declared.
People might say this is happening across the globe but Ireland voting is truly historic .. The once deeply conservative, backward state which was ruled by the Catholic church with an iron fist is finally shaking off the shackles of the past... Our Taoiseach (PM) recently drank with his party colleagues during a Christmas party in a Gay bar in Dublin - something absolutely unthinkable even 10 years ago.
It's a YES from me and all going well a YES from the Irish people - I will be a proud Irishman the night it passes!
0
Comments
As for Kenny, you can bet your last euro that if the polls weren't showing the public overwhelmingly in favour of marriage equality, he would've been nowhere near that bar. ;-)
Ah I actually think Kenny is alright, he will go down as one of our best IMO - history will look very fondly upon him! .. He better win this vote though!
I like to think this issue is the one that will galvanise the younger voters, especially the ones in universities.
I might be forced to agree that Kenny is one of the best Taoiseach's we've had, but that isn't saying much is it?
What planet are you living on? He will be remembered as a useless spineless excuse of a politician.
He's almost the perfect politician, says the right thing but does nothing to back it up.
He's a rather horrid little parochial fair weather politician. A rather spineless ignorant clueless fool with no morals.
Surprised the Catholic church has not ordered him to prevent this referendum.
Maybe we need more Alex Salmonds. He really motivated the young people of Scotland.
He will along with Lemass and Fitzgearld go down as the best Taoiseach IMO although the rest don't cover themselves in massive glory... It will take a few years to realise the full economic benefits but any leader who drops unemployment by 5% and makes us the fastest growing economy in stuttering Europe has done his bit for the country.
Well I am amazed at that response given how often you post about gay people
Sorry I couldn't respond to this quicker I had just fainted at this revelation.:p
That's not the point. It's a single issue and as a gay man I must say I would be voting no. At least the Irish give their citizens a vote, unlike UK who just force it thru.
I'm assuming by the word "would" that you can't vote in our referendum, so hey-ho, words are cheap when you aren't involved and want to stir the pot. ;-)
By "forcing it through", you mean deciding the issue by a democratic vote in Parliament?
What would be the point in voting No as a gay man?
It's something we Irish should thank the architects of the Irish Constitution every single day - it is true democracy.
If marriage is a constitutional matter in Ireland, that's fair enough. But do you think male homosexuality would have been legalised in 1993 if it had been left to a referendum?
Is it a straight 50% pass mark ?
I must say I'd be more happier with a 2/3 majority for constitutional stuff as in the USA, but then maybe nothing would ever get passed, however the system has served Ireland well .
"THE FAMILY
ARTICLE 41
1 1° The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.
2° The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority, as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State.
2 1° In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
2° The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.
3 1° The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack."
Tbh I think it would depend on the way it was worded. There may have been a chance of NO to "legalising", but at the same time a YES to "decriminalising" it.
Sometimes we are very odd people.