Quote Originally Posted by Elin View Post
Yeah, I read the 75% figure too. It's definitely large enough for there to be no debate about what the majority of the country wants (and quite encouraging to see, on a personal level, as someone who is very much on the yes side~ ), but that's still 1/4 of the country (if we assume that the voter turnout is reflective of the general populace's views, anyway) you have who are opposed to the decision. That's quite a lot of disappointed people, and by no means an insignificant number. I think it's definitely the best way of resolving these sorts of issues, but it still must sting for all the people who voted no.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering if it was a one time thing, or if it's the case for all constitutional revisions over there. Think it's a pretty good way of going about these things, as generally anything worth revising the constitution over is going to be something significant enough that the public deserve a say.

And yeah, I read about that. One part of me wants to be petty and say that there have for so many years been people in positions of power across the world who have used their platforms to speak out against the rights of LGBT people, and that this is really only a reversal of that. But ultimately I don't think it's particularly fair for those in positions of power to try and swing these things one way or another, even if, as in this case, they're acting in my interests. Would like for decisions that are supposed to be the people's to be, as far as is possible, left to the people themselves.
It is the best way of resolving issues but can be pretty slow, but also is a great way to prevent governments from making draconian law changes.

It's more that government agencies broke their rules about staying politically neutral and came out in support of it, like the representatives of the police force here came out in favour of a yes side. Our Taoiseach (Prime minster) Enda Kenny came out and urged people to vote yes at one point because "tech companies won't establish themselves in homophobic countries", which is crap, because tech companies will establish themselves wherever is economically viable. Again I hope this doesn't set a precedent for future referendums.