Ireland Votes Yes To Same-Sex Marriage

BarbaraHudson writes: Reuters is reporting that the citizens of Ireland voted overwhelmingly to legalize same-sex marriages. While it's also legal in 19 other countries, Ireland was the first to decide this by putting the question to the citizens. "This has really touched a nerve in Ireland," Equality Minister Aodhan O'Riordain said at the main count center in Dublin. "It's a very strong message to every LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) young person in Ireland and every LGBT young person in the world." Observers say the loss of moral authority of the Catholic church after a series of sex scandals was a strong contributing factor, with priests limiting their appeals to the people sitting in their pews. In contrast, the "Yes" side dominated social media.

Comments

Fuck off to Twitter or Myspace

[Peter (Professor) Fo]

Why do wankers like you pollute tech forums. Fuck-off now.

Re:This is how organized religion dies

[antiperimetaparalogo]

This is how organized religion dies -- to thunderous applause.

As they fade into irrelevance day after day, and people discover that they actually value the freedoms their churches have been suppressing, I expect people will abandon them at an even faster pace.

I don't like LBGT (and "t" - i like /. sigs!) - by the way, i am a Greek (Orthodox - which is almost like Catholics) Christian (note: my religion teaches, and my church believes, that LBGTt behavior is very bad, but we should love LBGTt persons). And i don't like the kind of discussion where people will accuse the Catholic church as the reason some civil matters are problematic because it teaches THE TRUTH (that is what i believe!) about LBGTt behavior, EVEN TO LBGTt persons - now that this civil matter is resolved, people still attack the Catholic church: "loss of moral authority of the Catholic church after a series of sex scandals was a strong contributing factor" (from /. summary) - Really? Do you know that the vast majority of those "sex scandals" was caused by homosexuals (and actually not priests but teachers in church funded schools)?

I believe in civil unions between LBGTt people, and i always thought it was the right thing. But i also believe that LBGTt people should repent for their behavior - church can help them. Why you think "organized religion dies" when people like me support the civil rights of LBGTt people? Or you think that the church should stop teaching (or "modify") the truth, to make it compatible with what people believe about civil issues? In a democracy, the citizens who decide about such civil matters may still believe the truth of the church but know the difference between "earth and sky". Most people i know are influenced by religion (that is the case in Greece) like me, but, again like me, support the rights of LBGTt people - what they don't support is having some "fagget pride" inside my church! Because there are people who believe that LBGTt people must be married inside a church, with an Orthodox/Catholic priest giving them blessings, and us, people of religion, giving a "thunderous applause".

The best thing to do is let church be a church, and have civil issues outside it - like what happened in this case. YOU (and everyone else) should not try to connect this with religion because I AM religious: if my religion is threatened i would prefer to stop supporting LBGTt people - my religion is more important for humans (even LBGTt people) than some civil rights (that most LBGTt people will never even practice actually - less than 10% of LBGTt people plans to "marry").

As a person of religion that has civil rights to decide about such issues i want to advise LBGTt people to stop being so irresponsible when demand their rights: civil unions is your civil right, I support it - having sex with Jesus is not! Please stop suppressing my right to religion.... everyone will benefit from that.