Ireland readies for historic gay marriage vote
Country is the first to hold a referendum on measure affecting same-sex couples
DUBLIN— If more people saw the world from a sourdough baker’s point of view, say Peter Flynn and Vlad Rainis, same-sex marriage would be just another simple step in the natural progression of things.
“When you make something that’s natural, there’s a symbiosis that gels with the naturalness of two gay people having a life together and having an expectation to marry,” says Flynn, from County Waterford in Ireland.
The 55-year-old runs Arun Bakery in Dublin with his partner in business and life, Rainis, 40, a master baker from Prague.
On Friday, the couple will be voting Yes in Ireland’s historic referendum on amending the constitution to recognize same-sex marriage. Ireland is the first country to hold such a poll.
They are unsure if voters will back the amendment to the extent that opinion polls suggest: the latest surveys place the Yes side at 58 per cent, with 17 per cent undecided.
“I think it will pass, but only with a slight majority,” says Rainis, who moved to Ireland in 2003. “There could be quite a few people who say Yes but who will vote No.”
The glaring discrepancy in Britain between opinion surveys and the recent election results has fuelled worries on the Yes side.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Ireland only in1993, and a referendum introducing divorce barely scraped through in 1995. Legislation allowing same-sex civil partnerships was enacted in 2010.
This campaign has been characterized by complete political support for marriage equality — every party has endorsed the Yes side, with only a small number of politicians saying they will vote No — and by the Catholic Church’s opposition to it.
“The worst thing is that the government has been so misleading and dishonest about what marriage equality means,” says solicitor Evana Boyle, a spokeswoman for Mothers and Fathers Matter, an activist group opposed to the change. “They say it’s merely about extending the right to marriage, but it’s not, it’s about redefining marriage.”
The No side claims that granting gay couples full marital equality would result in “gender-neutral” marriage in which parenthood would be redefined and where heterosexual parenting would no longer be given precedence over gay couples seeking surrogacy and assisted reproduction.
The Yes camp says the vote has nothing to do with surrogacy, and that opponents are raising it as a scaremongering tactic because they know they cannot defeat the equality argument.
While several liberal priests and nuns have defied church instructions by calling for a Yes vote, thousands of new Irish citizens, mostly immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe, are being mobilized by evangelical Christian leaders to vote against the proposal. Several preachers say the voices of such Christians are not being heard in the opinion polls, and that the referendum will not pass.
The pro-marriage equality side has had the support of many high-profile figures, including actor Colin Farrell, who spoke out on the issue in support of his gay brother, and former president Mary McAleese, whose son is gay and who urged that a Yes vote “costs us nothing; a No vote costs our gay children everything.” Health Minister Leo Varadkar came out earlier this year.
Flynn wonders at the logic of the majority of a country being allowed to dictate the fate of a minority. “But we have our rings ready; in fact we already wear them. Well, mostly,” he laughs. “I’ve mine off today and he has his on, so you can see the direction of the last row.”
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Ireland in 1993, a referendum barely approved divorce in 1995 and same-sex civil partnerships only became legal five years ago