Ireland backs legalizing gay marriage by a landslide

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

DUBLIN – Irish voters backed legalizing gay marriage by a landslide, according to electoral figures announced Saturday -- a stunning result that illustrates the rapid social change taking place in this traditionally Catholic nation.

 

Figures from Friday's referendum announced at Dublin Castle showed that 62.1 percent of Irish voters said "yes." Outside, watching the results announcement live in the castle's cobblestoned courtyard, thousands of gay rights activists cheered, hugged and cried.

 

The unexpectedly strong percentage of approval surprised both sides. Analysts and campaigners credited the "yes" side with adeptly using social media to mobilize first-time young voters and for a series of searing personal stories from Irish gay people to convince voters to back equal marriage rights.

 

Ireland is the first country to approve gay marriage in a popular national vote. Nineteen other countries have legalized the practice.

 

"We're the first country in the world to enshrine marriage equality in our constitution and do so by popular mandate. That makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world, of liberty and equality. So it's a very proud day to be Irish," said Leo Varadkar, a Cabinet minister who came out as gay at the start of a government-led effort to amend Ireland's conservative Catholic constitution.

 

"People from the LGBT community in Ireland are a minority. But with our parents, our families, or friends and co-workers and colleagues, we're a majority," said Varadkar, who watched the votes being tabulated at the County Dublin ballot center.

 

"For me it wasn't just a referendum. It was more like a social revolution," he added.

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Ireland is teh gay? (Well, have you ever seen a leprechaun?)