High Turnout May Point to "Yes" Vote for Irish Gay Marriage

By Kim Hjelmgaard
WTSP
May 23, 2015

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/05/23/ireland-gay-marriage-referendum/27834199/

wenty-two years after decriminalizing homosexuality, Ireland was poised Saturday to become the first country to legalize same-sex marriage as a result of a national referendum that has highlighted the dramatic pace at which this traditionally conservative Catholic nation has changed in recent times.

While counting is still taking place, electoral officers reported an unusually high number of people showing up for Friday's vote to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. National turnout may top 60%.

Campaigners on both sides believe this high turnout, buoyed by strong engagement from younger members of the electorate as well as the many Irish expatriates who returned home to cast their votes, is likely to favor a "Yes" result.

Around 3.2 million people were eligible to be asked whether they were in favor of amending Ireland's constitution to say that "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex."

For months, polls have indicated that the majority of Irish voters agree with that sentiment, but in the days leading up to the vote Ireland's government — which supports the measure — warned that attitudes may be hardening and that victory was far from certain.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland's minister for health who revealed he was gay during the referendum campaign, told The Irish Times late Friday after polls closed that he was "quietly confident but almost afraid to believe it in case it goes the wrong way."

David Quinn, a leading campaigner for the "No" vote, said that a high turnout in urban areas would almost certainly mean the "Yes" side would prevail but that higher numbers in rural areas, where the views of voters tend to reflect long-established Catholic values, would benefit his side.

The referendum is seen as an especially complex one for Ireland, where about 85% of the population still call themselves Roman Catholic even though church attendance has been steadily declining for a few decades and the church's moral authority has been questioned in the wake of a series of sexual abuse scandals and cover-ups involving children.

The country has been slow to follow a path of social liberalization that has taken root across Europe. Except in cases where a mother's life is perceived to be in danger, abortion is still illegal in Ireland. A prohibition on divorce was only repealed in 1996 following a national referendum.

Around the world, 18 countries have approved gay marriage nationwide, the majority of them in Europe. Others, such as the United States and Mexico, have approved it in certain regions.

In the United States, 37 states have approved gay marriage and the Supreme Court is currently weighing the issue.