Ireland backs legalizing gay marriage

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.

 Irish voters backed legalizing gay marriage by a landslide, electoral officials announced Saturday — a stunning result that illustrates the rapid social change taking place in this traditionally Catholic nation.

"With today's vote we have disclosed who we are: a generous, compassionate, bold and joyful people," Prime Minister Enda Kenny proclaimed as he welcomed the outcome.Friday's referendum saw 62.1 percent of Irish voters saying "yes" to changing the nation's constitution to allow gay marriage. Outside Dublin Castle, watching the results announcement in the castle's cobblestoned courtyard, thousands of gay rights activists cheered, hugged and cried at the news.

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 that convinced voters to back equal marriage rights.

Political analysts who have covered Irish referendums for decades agreed that Saturday's emerging landslide marked a stunning generational shift from the 1980s, when voters still firmly backed Catholic Church teachings and overwhelmingly voted against abortion and divorce.
"We're in a new country," said political analyst Sean Donnelly, who called the result "a tidal wave" that has produced pro-gay marriage majorities in even the most traditionally conservative rural corners of Ireland.