Most of the electorate undecided about how to vote in referendum

The purpose of the Marriage Equality Referendum is to address serious flaws in attitudes adversely affecting countless numbers of people because of their sexual orientation.

A ‘Yes’ vote would serve to remedy that problem and it would be entirely in keeping with the basic Christian ethic of love. Reality is that we are not at liberty to pick and choose who we love and who we can discard nor do we have the right to decide for anybody who they must love or to indicate what their partner’s gender must be before we can love them.

In my view the ballot box is no place to set limits to this basic principle of our existence upon which marriage and civilised conduct generally has been founded for centuries.

The most heated arguments in history have revolved around issues about which little was known. That position still pertains to a degree in matters relating to human sexuality. Nobody knows why it has a multitude of variations or why same sex people are attracted to each other.

These are the sort of circumstances and the vacuum that Socrates once railed against when he said that ‘the only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance’.

Commentators on the referendum have failed to address this longstanding deficit in insight and understanding. Most of the electorate undecided about which way to vote without running the risk of engaging in homophobia and prejudice against fellow citizens and their own kith and kin.

Pat Daly

Sycamore Drive

Kilmallock

Co Limerick