On May 22nd, voters in Ireland will walk into schools and church halls up and down the country, and they will have a very simple choice to make: whether to make their pencil mark beside ‘Yes’ or beside ‘No’.
Irrespective of their class, creed, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, on May 22nd every single person’s vote is as valuable as their neighbour’s. One of the greatest things about democracy is that irrespective of what happens in our day-to-day lives, inside the privacy of the voting booth, everybody is equal. Nobody’s vote counts for less than their neighbour’s; nobody’s vote is called something different in order to show that they are different; and nobody is prevented from voting for the person they want to. In a democracy and in a republic, everybody is, or should be, equal.
It is for that reason that we, the undersigned, urge the people of Ireland to vote for equality on May 22nd, and vote Yes.
Vote Yes for equality, and for allowing their fellow citizen the right to marry the person they love. Vote Yes for equality, and for recognizing that ‘separate but equal’ is never equal. Vote yes for equality, and for enshrining in law that love looks and feels just the same, no matter the gender or sexual orientation of the two people who share it.
In the name of Irish citizens at home and abroad, and in the name of all those around the world who want to see Ireland live up to the ideal that in a republic everyone is equal, no matter whom they love, we urge you, the people of Ireland, to Vote Yes to Marriage Equality in Ireland on May 22nd.
