Why We’re Voting In The Marriage Equality Referendum

There are a million and one different reasons why you should vote on Friday. Whether you’re voting yes, you’re undecided or you’re deciding to go with a ‘No’ vote, everyone who has the right to vote should be out on Friday ready to have their say. Here at Intrigue HQ, we all have different reasons why we are voting or people in mind who we are voting for. Here are just a few of the reasons why we think everyone needs to vote.

Every generation has the chance to make a change for the better for themselves and their country by using their vote. This is our chance to make marriage equality real. I’ll be voting yes on May 22 as I believe that everyone has the right to marry who they love be it of the opposite or same sex. Marriage is a choice and everyone should have that choice no matter what their sexual orientation is. (Barbara)

I only have one thing to say – vote yes. There isn’t a reason in the world why people should vote no – this referendum is about love and equality. I have cousins and friends who are feeling sick about this referendum because there is a chance they can’t have the same equality as everyone else and they can’t marry the person they love in the eyes of the law. This shouldn’t be a referendum at all – it isn’t my business to decide someone else’s fate or who they can marry. Unfortunately, the Irish government have made it my business and to everyone this referendum affects, I’m truly sorry – this isn’t fair. Everyone deserves to have the same rights and I won’t be stopping that. I live abroad and can’t be in the country on Friday to vote but I’m doing my best to spread awareness every way I can. Good luck on Friday and for the sake of love and equality and everyone I know who deserves to be happy, please vote yes! #YesEquality2015 (Emily)

My husband and I got married last year on a gloriously sunny day under an open marquee on a lawn facing a lake. It was wonderful. Five of our guests could have a similar ceremony-but it won’t be a wedding and that’s not fair. My gay friends are as entitled to be married as I am. No one else’s marriage (gay or straight) affects the integrity of mine. (Grace)

How would you feel if 20-30 years from now your son or daughter cried in front of you, confused and angry because they couldn’t marry the person they love? Their soulmate. Their one and only. It’s time for change – change for the better Vote YES on May 22nd. (Catherine)

All I can say is that everyone deserves the right to love. Why should I be allowed to marry when some of my closest friends are denied that right solely because they are the same gender as their partner? If we are to live in a democracy where equality is a presupposed fact, then no one should be treated like a second class citizen, regardless of race, class or sexual preference. Marriage is a special bond between two people who love and care for each other. Any argument stating the marriage of homesexual couples is wrong is unfortunately based on ignorance. The idea that homosexual marriage is a threat to society or heterosexual marriage is both archaic and prejudiced. Homesexuality was only decriminalised in Ireland in 1993 – a despondent reality. Let’s finally choose change and make the grá the law #YesEquality2015! (Sarah)

When I think back on Ireland’s chequered past regarding issues of equality, I can’t help but be proud of how far we’ve come as a nation. But we can’t stop now, not on issues that matter as much as marriage equality does. When people ask me why I’m voting Yes on the 22nd of May, I say it’s because I want members of my family, like my godmother, and some of my closest friends to have the same civil rights as I do. In reality, that is only a fraction of the reason. The No campaign have repeatedly asked the Irish population to think of the children. And I am.

I am thinking of the thousands of children who are growing up in today’s world. I want our country to be a place where all these children are afforded the same rights as one another. I want to live in a country where every child knows, without a iota of doubt, that they matter just as much as everyone else, regardless of their sexuality. I am voting Yes because fear of change shouldn’t determine the rights of others. I am voting Yes because marriage is not just a Christian sacrament, it is a commitment between two loving people that is recognised by their loved ones and the state. And this commitment should not be defined by the gender or sexuality of any couple. I am voting Yes because I want the 23rd of May to be one of the happiest, most joyous, rainbow-filled days in Irish history. And I am voting Yes because I want to able to tell future generations that I was a part of making our world that little bit more open, understanding and loving. (Michelle)

Initially, I found myself firmly in the Yes camp, seeing this referendum as a gateway to hard-fought and long-deserved equality in the modern age. In recent weeks however, against the backdrop of high profile governmental and presidential figures – both present and former – invoking a yes vote based on their own sexual orientation or that of close family members, I find myself wondering is this yet another artifice being manipulated for political & personal gain? I wonder how this particular referendum has been given precedence over the need to address the rights of women in our country who died, or suffered severely in Irish hospitals, having been refused abortions which would have saved their lives or spared their unborn babies suffering as they were being born, only to die minutes later. Are we a ‘catholic country’ only when it suits us? Why is one element of equality a step too far for society, yet not another? Questions & reasonable political scepticism leaves me very undecided…(Ailbhe)

I’m voting yes because I believe we all deserve to be treated equally. Why should any person be treated lesser because they love someone of the same gender? How amazing would it be, if after just 22 years from decriminalising homosexuality, we legalised gay marriage?! (Roisin)

Love is love and there is no set definition of what that is. We all see the world differently and we should respect each others differences as well as similarities. Voting yes is so important in this referendum. It will show that Ireland is moving forward to accepting the right to the freedom of love. Love should never be governed by the opinions of others. We are all human and should be respected as such. (Nadine)

How can you say no to equality? Why do you have the right to say people who love each other, who are consenting adults, cannot get married? Honestly, think about that. What gives you the right to deny human rights? To people. Not statistics. But human beings who cry, feel pain, joy and horror as you do? If you don’t disagree that these are people, then treat them with dignity and equality. Marriage isn’t about biology or treating people like things only for breeding. This is about love and what’s right. (Colette)