Looks like Ireland's referendum on gay marriage is a Yes.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: boymonkey74

85% Catholic and quite a conservative culture. Still they manage to vote in a 'landslide' decision to legalise gay marriage.

Progress! Progress! Progress!

I would say it is more like they are sick of hearing about it and finally caved, no one actually cares all that much.

I wonder what new thing to talk about over the next 50 years will get this kind of attention???

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Dfairlite

It's not just a matter of semantics. In a Civil Union the partner has no rights as far as medical decisions or other rights that a spouse has. They're not technicality family in a Civil Union so they can be excluded from benefits, or anything else requiring a family relationship.

A simpler solution that would have broad support here in the US is to grant those rights to those in a civil union. Most everyone I deal with who is against homosexual marriage still has human decency and wants homosexual couples to be able to inherit benefits upon death, hospital visitation (which obama toook care of), etc.... Rather than calling two different things the same, we can still grant similar rights to two different things.JMO

a reply to: Dfairlite

Or even simpler is yet any consenting adults get married if they want...
Oh look the civilized world is doing so.
It's happened get over it.

a reply to: Dfairlite

They shouldn't have to regulate even more. We're talking about consenting adults, they should be allowed to marry if they choose. Their being married doesn't affect your life or marriage, or mine.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: boymonkey74

Well it shines a light on some of our ATS friends who are resistant to such changes!

"No! No! The gays shouldn't be allowed to marry! It devalues the sanctity of marriage! I'm not homophobic, I just think the gays have an agenda to turn us all queer!"

It appears that a Catholic nation feels otherwise. To be honest, I wouldn't have expected such an apparently overwhelming vote in favour. I mean, our Protestant bishops wet their manly robes when gay clergy and gay marriage was raised in the rest of the UK.

Ok seriously. A catholic culture that has quietly tolerated homosexual pedophiles for a very long time? As if they had their head screwed on at all over the years. These sort of Catholics approving gay marriage should be no surprise at all. None, zero. This sort of vote simply demonstrates what the church has been teaching privately for years over there. I mean hay forget the boy scouts send your boys to "mass", teach a whole generation to be queer.

originally posted by: Dfairlite

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Dfairlite

you can still define your marriage.

That's not how this works. I can call a reindeer a rhinoceros, but words have meanings. Without words having meanings, what good is language?

Then we're going to have to call a marriage something different when it's for love, and a different name when it's for money, and a different name when children are conceived, and a different name when it involves two swingers, etc. Because those are all very different kinds of marriages.

We use the word marriage to also mean a union of any two things, or to mean being committed to something (I'm not "married" to the idea of something).

The redefining marriage argument is just a flimsy excuse for being threatened by marriage equality for gays. Swingers having an open marriage has no affect on your marriage. A super hot bimbo marrying a rich old geezer so she can wait for him to die and get all his money has no affect on your marriage. A gay couple getting a marriage license has no affect on your marriage. You don't need to feel so threatened that your marriage will be over because some gay couple got married.

a reply to: Dfairlite

Why are you so against gay marriage? How does it actually effect you?

You and your ilk don't own the word marriage. Marriage has lots of meanings, and any two people (or group for that matter) that want to call themselves "married" can, whether you like it or not. It has become necessary as a society to mandate the right for people to do so because of bigotted people like you who just can't seem to let others just lead their lives.

So in a sense your inability to live and let live has led to greater involvement of government in our lives.

Even though you're still free to think like a bigot, logic has won out, highlighting how wrong you actually are.

Get over it.

a reply to: puzzlesphere

I'll tell you what.

I have gay friends. I am open. I am tolerant.

But I am so incredibly sick of hearing, talking and breathing the GAY thing. Is there nothing else to talk about in the world? Is there nothing else on TV? Is there nothing else worthy of our attention?

Because, listen, the world is falling apart. As we speak. Literally before our eyes.

And who is sleeping with who should not be commanding the world's attention in this way.

Great! So and so is gay! Congratulations. I hope he or she is happy! Terrific.

Now can we please talk about something else?

originally posted by: MRuss

Great! So and so is gay! Congratulations. I hope he or she is happy! Terrific.

Now can we please talk about something else?

Try a different thread.

This one is specifically about Ireland voting for Marriage Equality.

So, why are you here?

a reply to: MRuss

Ireland passing gay marriage is part of the bigger conversation my friend.

Have we been talking about nothing else for ten years? I think not.

This is how we distract people from the truth of what is happening in the world.

By talking about sex. And who is having sex with who.

originally posted by: MRuss

This is how we distract people from the truth of what is happening in the world.

Give it a rest.

"Gay friends"? I don't think so. Not if all you think of them is they are a sex act.

Earning respect and equality in society IS a big deal.

Not everything is a conspiracy.

a reply to: Annee

If you are an ATS'er, then you'll be familiar with the following ideas:

The media is constantly harping on issues to distract us from what is really going on in the world. The gay topic, among others, is completely overdone.

I'm sorry, but I'm bored to death with the gay issue. It's been the subject of our national conversation for years and years and years.

Enough already!

It's 2015 - nobody cares if someone is gay.

I thought ATS was a conspiracy discussion forum? You'd think it was a distraction from real conspiracies, or something.

a reply to: MRuss

Boring for you maybe but for many it is a hot topic.
Why even respond to the thread if it doesn't matter to you? oh and expect more threads like this until equality wins.

a reply to: SensiblyReckless

But people do..have you not read the thread? some call gay people mentally unwell for who they are it is this type of BS that we have to fight.
Oh and ATS is much more than a conspiracy site.

originally posted by: SensiblyReckless

It's 2015 - nobody cares if someone is gay.

Uh oh. Somebody better tell that to these guys. I don't think they got the "don't care about gays" memo.

thinkprogress.org...

a reply to: MRuss

And realistically the "gay thing" will be around definitely for our generation (so get used to it), and probably the next generation as well... maybe a few generations from now (as long as we keep getting events like Ireland), when the 30 something’s are old and passing away, will we see "gay" as being a non-issue.

The fact that you call it the "GAY thing" highlights just how much of an issue it still is... and I am also guilty of such prejudice... it's generational, and I have some deep ingrained attitudes that I have spent effort deprogramming from, such as "Gays... a bunch of whingers and pansies"... or ... "Getting married to a nice girl... it's the 'right' thing to do". These are insidious mindsets that don't just disappear because you're sick of hearing about it.

I'm happy to keep hearing about it (especially when there are still attitudes as displayed in this thread) if for nothing else, as a reminder of just how far our society still has to go.

I agree with you... who's sleeping with who should be a non-issue, but for many it still is obviously a huge issue... enough so that they will still speak outwardly against it.

Maybe part of the reason the world is falling apart (that's subjective by the way) is that people still can't accept each other for who they are.

In that sense, we need to keep talking about it (along with many other social inequalities) until the current generation of bigots is too old to bother or dead, and their kids kids have a chance of redefining the social norm.

The number of people who do *not* think they are homophobes or racists on this site is astonishing.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Dfairlite

Their being married doesn't affect your life or marriage, or mine.

Sort of in the same way QE doesn't devalue currency?


If your statement were true, why would we have a patent office?


Why would Nike care about fake Nikes?


A Rolex really is not such a big deal anymore when you can get one for $30.


When the government makes money from nothing - it impacts the real thing. When faux products flood the market, it impacts the real thing.

No different in marriage.

When faux marriages become common, true marriage is lessened.

Not that the homosexualists will reap as much damaged as the dime-a-dozen divorces have, it is just another, if not final nail in the coffin.

a reply to: Seamrog

Who is calling it fake? it isn't in Ireland anymore it is real the majority have spoken and do want this in part of their society.
Just because you CHOOSE to feel it devalues marriage I disagree I think it strengthens it, what makes your marriage any more special than two gay guys who also love each other whom has just gotten married?.