What Will A Yes Vote Mean For Ireland?
The main outcome of a positive YES vote will be to create more stable family units.
Families are key to a stable society, and marriage plays a huge role in stable families. Research shows that marriage is good for people: married people are healthier, happier and earn more. Marriage is also a commitment device – it keeps couples together and families together.
All recent research concludes that married couples are dramatically more likely to stay together than unmarried couples at all levels of relationship quality and at all relationship durations. Marriage is accepted by the majority of people as good for society e.g. the family unit looks after itself, takes on a caring role for the members of that family and therefore is less dependent on the State for support.
If you believe gay and lesbian people would benefit from marriage and that society would too then why deny these benefits based on sexuality alone?
There is nothing to fear from this change and much to gain. Introducing marriage equality won’t cost the State anything but will improve the lives of thousands of people and, arguably, improve Irish society in general. The reality is that marriage equality affects us all, even if we don’t realize it.
Discrimination in marriage terms is not some concept from centuries back. It is only 48 years (1967) since the US Supreme Court deemed that interracial marriages were legal.