Irish Referendum on Path to Change History

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Referendum in Ireland Could Complete a Rapid Shift on Same-Sex Marriage
by Douglas Dalby & Dan Bilefsky of The New York Times
May 21, 2015

DUBLIN — In 1993, Ireland was among the last countries in the Western World to decriminalize homosexuality. Some 22 years later, it could become the first to legalize same sex marriages by popular vote.

With a rapidity that has astonished even proponents, Ireland, a country that rescinded its Victorian era law governing homosexuality — the same legislation England used in 1895 to imprison Oscar Wilde — only after it had been dragged before the European Court of Human Rights, will go to the polls on Friday to decide on gay marriage rights. Ireland becomes the latest place — though perhaps a surprising one — to take up the issue, in a global swing that in just the past few years has seen states, countries and people seriously considering expanding marriage to include gays.

Social, religious, political and legal mores have been falling by the wayside, and laws are being changed through legislatures, courts and, in some local cases, popular vote. In Ireland, a Roman Catholic country that has long been known for a seemingly conservative streak, the lack of a strong backlash during the referendum campaign has been notable, even as opponents of the measure have mobilized. Past referendums on divorce and abortion were deeply divisive, but the stature of the Catholic Church has eroded after a series of scandals that included the abuse of children.

Just three years ago, former Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore of the left leaning Labour Party described same sex marriage as “quite simply, the civil rights issue of this generation.” Taking up a recommendation in the 2012 national Constitutional Convention, Mr. Gilmore pushed the issue toward Friday’s vote. Even so, a vote in favor is far from assured. Advocates on both sides will be watching closely for who turns out to cast a ballot, and where. More elderly, rural, conservative voters could ensure the referendum’s defeat.

For Senator David Norris, 70, who took the successful case for decriminalizing homosexuality in Ireland to Europe, the vote is proof that the days when he was considered “the only gay man in Ireland” are done. “In many ways, Ireland hasn’t changed because the Irish people have always been tolerant, decent and compassionate,” he said in a recent interview in his Dublin office. “But you’ve still got to say that it’s extraordinary to have once been considered a criminal and now I might be able to marry — if anyone would have me, that is!”

In the United States, support for gay marriage has grown greatly — and quickly. Gay marriage is now legal in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Its status in a 37th state, Alabama, is unclear because of conflicting state and federal court orders. The United States Supreme Court is now considering whether same sex marriage is a constitutional right; its decision is expected by the end of next month.

In Europe, same sex weddings are legal in more than a dozen countries, including Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway. They have also been adopted by countries as diverse as Brazil, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand and Uruguay, according to the Pew Research Center. Yet in many places, the adoption of laws was preceded by heated battles. In France, which prides itself on being the country of liberty, equality and fraternity, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest two years ago when President François Hollande announced plans to make same sex marriage legal. The legislation eventually passed, but it continues to be polarizing, with lingering opposition from traditional churchgoers, political conservatives and many Muslims and Jews.

In many other places around the world, talk of gay marriage is not even a notion. Homosexual behavior in itself remains a crime punishable by death in five countries and in parts of two others; in 70 others it still carries hefty prison terms. Under federal law in Nigeria, it is a crime punishable by imprisonment. In Saudi Arabia, anyone caught engaging in a homosexual act faces death by stoning. Closer to Dublin, British ruled Northern Ireland has refused to join the rest of the United Kingdom in recognizing same sex marriage. Last month the region’s health minister, Jim Wells, resigned after a lesbian constituent confronted him over comments he had made, contending that a child was far more likely to be abused or neglected if brought up by parents in a homosexual relationship. The resignation came a day before the majority right wing Protestant Democratic Unionist Party, to which he still belongs, voted down same sex marriage in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the fourth time in three years.

Much of the opposition there is rooted in religious convictions, based in evangelical Protestantism. The Catholic nationalist Sinn Fein party supports gay marriage in Northern Ireland, but has not been able to overcome the opposition. When First Minister Peter Robinson of Northern Ireland defended his wife, Iris, after she described homosexuality as an abomination and advised a gay man it could be “cured” by psychotherapy, he responded, “It wasn’t Iris Robinson who determined that homosexuality was an abomination, it was the Almighty.” In the Republic of Ireland, the Angelus still tolls twice daily on the state broadcaster, and officially around 84 percent of the populace is Roman Catholic.

But the days when an entire society appeared in thrall to the Vatican have long since given way to secularist pluralism, paving the way for Friday’s vote. Still, many supporters of the same sex marriage law worry that the pockets of resistance are strong and largely silent, perhaps skewing polls that lean in favor of approval. The country over all remains socially conservative, and some still see homosexuality as a sin — or something to mock. Yet Prime Minister Enda Kenny, a churchgoer, supports the amendments. “There is nothing to fear for voting for love and equality,” he said.

Even the right leaning Fine Gael and Fianna Fail parties support the measure, and within the church there is division. The bishops have been resolute in their opposition, but their message appears to have gone unheeded by some of their clergy members. The Rev. Tim Hazelwood, in the village of Killeagh in a rural part of County Cork, told The Irish Times this week that he supports the referendum because gay people are entitled to equal rights. “I feel that as a country and a church we haven’t treated gay people well,” he said, “and I said that at the end of Mass on Sunday, when I said I would be voting ‘yes.’ ”