Love Wins. Again.

Equality won in Ireland yesterday.  It didn't eek by.  It was a landslide.

Equal rights in marriage for my gay friends and relatives.

Early in this movement, a young gay friend complained that in his eyes, this was an insignificant concern in a world filled with more important, more tragic issues for all humanity.

I didn't agree, but I couldn't communicate why because I couldn't quite interpret what I was feeling.  I can do better now.

This has been an important movement, an important issue because it has brought out the love in so many.  I'm mostly referring to straight people, not acquainted with the hate thrown at our homosexual community mainly because we were unaware of it.  The Marriage Equality movement brings our gay brothers and sisters into our point of view.  And for a majority, the image is one of "What's the big deal?  If two people love each other enough to commit to the challenges of creating a LIFE together, why shouldn't that be encouraged?"

Hence, the enormous shift in a very short amount of time from rejection to acceptance to celebration.

As a historian, a student of civil rights and in some ways an observer of a historical shift in a belief system, it has been a thrill to watch a group targeted for hate and discrimination rather quickly work closer and closer to true equality in our communities.

As someone lucky enough to have gay friends and family, it has been a thrill to experience with them the relief of knowing they are not only NOT universally hated, but are more and more universally accepted and, by many, loved for all of who they are rather than for the masks they feel safe to show.

Comhghairdeas (and man, I hope I'm using that correctly).  Thank you for letting us celebrate with you, and thank you for setting the world on the right path.