Today is International Day Against Homophobia,
Transphobia, and Biphobia and I am proud and delighted to
take part in the Hop for Visibility, Awareness and Equality. I hope you’ll
enjoy my post on the aftermath of the marriage equality referendum in Ireland
and that you’ll enter my give-away at the bottom of this post.
If you want to know
more about the Blog Hop and the numerous blogs participating in this fabulous initiative, please click on
the link below this image:
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As you may (or may
not) know I live in Ireland. Today it is almost a year to the day since this
little country I call home said yes to marriage equality in a referendum. With
that in mind I decided this blog hop might be a good occasion to take a look at
what happened after the result was announced.
I thought about it
for a while and realised I couldn’t remember anything relating to the
referendum result hitting the headlines since then. Yes, I’m fairly sure there
was a report on the first same sex couple to tie the knot, but other than that,
nothing sprang to mind.
While I do try to
stay in touch with current affairs I’m the first to admit that I don’t catch
everything, so I took to Google and entered ‘Ireland after the marriage
equality referendum’ and found no stories other than those relating to the day
the result was announced. Just to be sure I also tried ‘Ireland, marriage
equality referendum aftermath’, but the search result was the same.
As far as I can
tell nothing changed. I mean, of course things changed for those in same sex
relationships. They now have an option they never had before; they have reached
a level of equality that is still a dream for too many people around the world.
But there hasn’t been a backlash, there have been no cases of civil servants
refusing a couple their marriage certificate because they happened to be the same
sex, the priests stopped talking about the subject, and there has been no
stalling on the part of politicians. The referendum was passed, the law was
changed and gay and lesbian couples could and did get married.
And that is because
equality really isn’t that complicated. All it means is that those who are
human all have the same rights and the same obligations. Equality doesn’t take
anything away from those who were privileged before; it ‘only’ gives to those
who were disadvantaged. I will never understand what drives people to deny
others the rights they themselves take for granted. A world in which all are
equal is a world with less strife and conflict and therefore a better place for
all. It really is that simple.
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Give-away:
I’ll be gifting an
e-copy of either ‘Strangers in the Night’ or ‘Scenes from Adelaide Road’ to one
of those who comment below. This hop runs from May 17th to May 24th
so to give anybody who wants to enter the opportunity to do so, I’ll randomly
pick a winner on May 26th. Good luck J
