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Ireland Legalizes Gay Marriage in 'Social Revolution'

CBN

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Ireland has become the first country to legalize same-sex marriage through popular vote by adding it to their constitution.

Friday's referendum saw 62.1 percent of Irish voters say "yes" to changing the nation's constitution to define marriage as a union between two people regardless of their sex.

In response to the landslide vote, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said Catholic leaders in Ireland needed urgently to find a new message and voice for reaching Ireland's young.
 
"It's a social revolution. ... The church needs to do a reality check right across the board," Martin said.

People in the capital of Dublin were divided ahead of the vote on Friday. Supporters said it's about equality, while opponents argued same-sex marriage is not fair to children.

"We're such an active generation when it comes to protesting and getting our voice heard and it feels amazing to be part of history," one same-sex marriage supporter said.

"Children should have an equal right to a mother and a father where possible," Keith Mills, who opposed same-sex marriage, said Friday.

"And the clause that we're being asked to vote on in the referendum is that there is no distinction between the relationship that a man forms with a man and a man forms with a woman, and I've had both types of relationships, and I think there is a distinct difference," he said.

Ireland legalized civil partnerships for same-sex couples in 2011.

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