The ‘yes’ voters are our heroes

An overjoyed Jonathan Neville watched the referendum results from an Irish bar in Vienna with his husband, Frank and 50 other Eurovision fans. Twenty six years previous, when studying to be a priest, he had tried to kill himself as he didn’t want to be gay anymore.

As we sat in Flanagans bar in Vienna on Saturday watching the results roll in, there were emotions being expressed in all forms: screams of joy, raucous cheers and much shedding of tears. You could say that we witnessed again all the emotions that we in the LGBT community have felt over these last few months of campaigning.

You see, for us, the referendum was about more than marriage equality, it was about validation of what we are and full acceptance of us as equal citizens of Ireland. I think Joan Burton summed it up well when she said: “Most of all, I’ll think of the children in every town, village and schoolyard who will now grow up knowing their country accepts them.”