The tenth anniversary of the marriage equality referendum, which falls next week, offers an opportunity to reflect on one of the most consequential events in modern Irish social history.
Ireland was the first country in the world to put to a popular vote the question of whether to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples. The 62 per cent to 38 per cent vote in favour was the clearest evidence to date that the country had undergone a profound shift towards greater tolerance, respect and equality for all its citizens.
The referendum must also be seen against the wider international backdrop of the most successful civil rights movement in modern democratic politics, as LGBTQ people across the world asserted their existence after centuries of repression.
The change in Ireland was particularly swift. Within just over two decades, the State went from being a place where certain consensual sexual acts between adults were a criminal offence to one where the rights of all, regardless of sexual orientation, would be vindicated.
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The Yes Equality campaign, with its focus on personal stories and its appeal to empathy and respect for individual dignity, would also provide a template for the successful campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment three years later.
But the origins of the 2015 referendum go back further, to small groups of activists in the 1970s and 1980s who organised the first Pride events, set up resources like the Hirschfeld Centre, and began the long process of lobbying for reform. Lesbians and gay men were no longer prepared to accept institutional discrimination, police harassment and irrational prejudice. Their most high-profile and effective spokesman was David Norris, who became the first openly gay member of the Oireachtas when elected to the Seanad in 1987, but there were many others.
The story of the struggle for LGBTQ rights in Ireland is one of persistence and determination in the face of an obdurate and often hostile legal and political establishment. But it is also about a deeper shift in public opinion. Homophobia became socially unacceptable as attitudes changed and gay people felt able to express their true selves.
Sadly, that process of change is not complete. Members of the LGBTQ community still feel unsafe or unwanted in some places, including public spaces. That is unacceptable. Ireland is not immune to the reactionary intolerance which is on the rise elsewhere. The passage last year of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act acknowledges that lesbian, gay and trans people, along with other groups, are particularly vulnerable to criminality and acts of violence motivated by prejudice. It is entirely right that this is now taken into account by the courts in sentencing, in recognition of the LGBTQ community’s right to safety and security.
