Former Irish President Mary McAleese is
urging voters to approve a referendum on marriage equality.
Voters head to the polls on Friday. If
approved, Ireland would become the first nation to legalize same-sex
marriage by popular vote.
Speaking at an event in Dublin
organized by BeLonG, a group devoted to LGBT youth, McAleese, who
left office in 2011, said that she did not bring her son Justin into
the world “to be a second class citizen.”
“I am grateful that my gay son grew
up in a gay-friendly household,” McAleese
said.
“But we were not able to protect him
from hostility outside our home. And like so many parents of gay
children, we were worried sick about the man-made barriers we knew he
would encounter, including the constitutional barrier that would
never let him marry the person he loved.”
“We who are parents, brothers and
sisters, colleagues and friends of Ireland's gay citizens know how
they have suffered because of second-class citizenship.”
“This referendum is about them and
them alone. The only children affected by this referendum will be
Ireland's gay children. It is their future which is at stake. It is
in our hands.”
“A yes vote costs the rest of us
nothing. A no vote costs our gay children everything,” she added.