http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_Homosexual_Law_Reform

main point being "The Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform was an organisation set up to campaign for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the 1970s." that it was a criminal act here in the 70s to be gay.... and the odd old biggot here will try to tell you that gays only started to appear here in the last 20 years... not mentioning that of course it was illegal to come out as gay before that, Great day tho for Ireland, literally never been prouder of my country than today and all those in it, 62% of the electorate in favour with all but 1 county being a Yes vote for equality.

Think it was said best today that nothing changed in Ireland today with it's people but the law changed to show just how welcoming and open to equality the people of Ireland are now compared to the heavily catholic image that a lot of people outside Ireland may have believed we still had here. Can only hope now that LGBT couples who might have considered coming to Ireland as tourists see this around the world and see that they're more welcome by the people here than our historic image might have made them think.

I think you might want to be careful with that joke, if it is a joke. I imagine calling gay men snakes is really, really dangerous in a discussion like this.

Same sex marriage has been legal in new zealand for like 3 years

I don't know how any self-respecting Aussie can stand by while we fall further and further behind the bloody Kiwis! ;)

Awesome! Hopefully my country will someday be tolerant and allow same-sex marriage. We are decades away at this point though.

Your friends in Canada hope you all get equality soon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_New_Zealand#Relationships.2C_civil_unions_and_same-sex_marriage

" The bill passed its first reading on 29 August 2012, 80 votes in favour to 40 opposed (with one abstention). The bill passed its second and third readings by 77-44, and became law on 19 April 2013."

80 members of parament passing a law into effect is not what happened in Ireland today, it was the first time that marriage equality has gone into law based on a public referendum, yesterday 1.3million Irish people said yes to gay marriage, not a single room full of politicians.

Worldwide laws regarding homosexual relationships and expression ‹See Tfm›     [dark blue] Marriage ‹See Tfm›     Restricted freedom of expression ‹See Tfm›     [blue] Other type of partnership or unregistered cohabitation ‹See Tfm›     [Yellow] Unenforced penalty ‹See Tfm›     [Cyan] Marriage recognized but not performed ‹See Tfm›     [Orange] Imprisonment ‹See Tfm›     [grey/blue] Marriage recognized federally but not performed ‹See Tfm›     [light red]Up to life in prison ‹See Tfm›     [grey] Same-sex unions not recognized ‹See Tfm›     [dark red]Death penalty Click on map to view an enlarged version where rings in various locations become visible. These indicate places with local or case-by-case applications of law.

Those regions of the world where being gay is punished by life imprisonment or death penality... just so sad that there are people in those countries who face death for who they love.

(sorry about the colour code stuff, vgchartz doesn't take to wiki's colour formatting too well!)

Not calling them snakes, they have a penis AKA a snake.  Is Australia the only place in the world that has about 100 words for the little fella?

BTW, remember that Gay Rights extends beyond Marriage. It's a step in the right direction but doesn't mean it's over.