Ireland: The People of Have Spoken!

While Ireland is certainly not the first country to legalize same-sex marriage, their acknowledging of gay equality in the eyes of the law is nothing short of a monumental historic achievement.

For the first time in human history, same-sex marriage was legalized by popular vote. It wasn't decided by a few dozen representatives in a parliamentary chamber. It was made law of the land by people taking to the streets and making their voices heard at the ballot, passing the measure by a 62% to 38% margin, an overwhelming victory.

Another reason why this is so consequential is because Ireland is a country with much of its history and identity deeply rooted in Catholicism. How much this referendum passing is a reflection of an increasingly marginalized Catholic church or the evolution and reform it's undergoing can't be definitively said. My guess though, it's a lot of both.

If you would have asked me a year ago if Ireland would have legalized same-sex marriage through any means, I would have told you "definitely no." After all, Ireland recently made divorce legal by popular referendum by a narrow margin in the mid 90s. But change is, and has been, in the air for some time

And that change is far from being limited to just Europe. Since 2003, after Massachusetts became the first, 37 states have made same-sex marriage legal. If the prevailing winds continue to hold -- and all signs point to that being the case -- it seems inevitable that gay marriage will be federally legalized and recognized.

It's long overdue. I've heard about every argument under the sun for and against . The arguments against just don't hold up to logic, and, I would argue morality, itself.

Let's go with the logic side of the house first: If being gay was a choice (and why that factors into the equation anyways is beyond me), who would choose to be ostracized or completely disowned by the family they love? Worse yet, coming out in some countries and cultures equates to certain death, violent at that. Again I ask you, who would choose that?

Over a thousand species have been documented to exhibit homosexual behavior, including many of our closest ancestral cousins. The evidence is and has been overwhelming for some time. I mean, can a gay buffalo really be living in sin?

While it's certainly true that we choose our sexual behavior, we have no say in our biological sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. For example, I grew up in the church and went to Protestant Christian schooling up until my junior year of high school. We were conditioned to treat abstinence like a badge of honor. Most of us, at least publicly, practiced what we were preached. Did us not having sex make us asexual? Nope. I assure you, my circle of friends and I were very much heterosexual. We just chose to behave like asexuals. See the difference?

So what government or society has any right whatsoever to tell two consenting adults how to behave sexually? It's not just their choice. It's their inherent right.

I'm very much on the far end of the heterosexual spectrum. I don't have fantasies about men. I don't have sexual dreams about them. I've never been aroused by them. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with that if I did experience those things, but the point is this: I had absolutely no say in my heterosexuality, at all, period.

I mean, did any person hit puberty go "Well, on one hand, we have penises. On the other, we have breasts. I better weigh these two on the proverbial scale and decide now, for forever and always, which one I'm attracted to"? I know I didn't. Breasts were just always fantastic. It was innate, hardwired into me. Since the heteros among us didn't choose to be straight, logic only dictates homosexuals, bisexuals, asexuals and transgendered had absolutely no say either.

Now for the morality side of the argument: Let's say you're a Protestant Christian man who has been partnered with a women for 20 years. You've built an entire life with this person, been to hell and back. She's your everything, your soul mate. Then one day on your way to work, you get broadsided by a pick-up truck. You're in the hospital, alive but in serious condition. All you want to do is see your partner.

The sad thing is, you can't. In this scenario, your partner you built a life with is Catholic and Protestant-Catholic marriages are illegal in your state/country. She is not "family" according to the law; she has no visitation rights.

How unspeakably cruel? Hey, you chose to be Protestant.

Why people try to stop same-sex couples from adopting children baffles me. For starters, a child raised by the state, in orphanages or foster homes their whole lives, tend to not fair as well as children raised by two devoted parents, regardless of the parents' sexual orientation. To cut same-sex couples off from such a noble undertaking not only deprives them of the right to pursue their happiness and life's fulfillment, it deprives those children of much, much more.

Doesn't seem to make sense, does it? Pure madness. But scenarios like this one have played out for same-sex couples countless times over the course of human history. It's time we put a stop to that.

Love is powerful and massive. Why societies continue to try to relegate it to narrow confines that don't exist in reality is nothing short of oppressive. The majority of Irish people have recognized that. Their gay population and people as a whole are now better off for it.

I just look forward to the day my friends in my home state of Ohio and across the nation I served and love with a passion can all marry the person they love. It's time for America to be become even more American. In the mean time, congratulations to the people of Ireland! You've done the world a great service.