Irish citizens set to vote for same-sex marriage

Voters in Ireland are going to the polls on May 22 to decide if the country should make marriage equal for all, the first country in the world to put same-sex marriage to a vote.

Only 20 years ago Ireland narrowly voted to approve divorce by a margin of 1%. While in 20 years the influence of the Catholic church as dimenished, the no side has been fighting a fierce campaign.

Condoms were only available with a prescription only 30 years ago. Times have changed for the European nation. And it wasn’t until 1993 that ‘sodomy’ was decriminalized, 26 years after the UK.

The No side has waged a campaign using tactics familiar to US voters, including arguing that same-sex marriages are harmful to children, the type of messaging used against Prop 8.

An opinion poll on the referendum question carried out last week by the tv network RTE found 78% of respondents are in favor of the amendment. Those surveyed between 18 and 24-years-old were 94% in favor of the referendum while respondents over 55 were less likely at 65%.

Campaigners are not taking the strong numbers as an easy win and have been out in force knocking on 1.8 million doors to get the vote out. Irish voters do have a history of abandoning constitutional changes at the final hour.

The Yes campaign has an impressive list of famous supporters including actors Colin Farrell and Chris O’Dowd.

Looking at the recently released ILGA-Europe 2015 Rainbow Europe Map results, Ireland scored only 40%, one of the lowest scores in Western Europe (but not as low as Italy or Switzerland). Equal marriage will go some way to improving the county’s score, but many other measures are still required particularly for gender identity equality and hate crime laws.