The people of Ireland made headlines around the world in late May when they voted yes in the world’s first national voter referendum on same-sex marriage.

The referendum passed by a strong majority, capturing 62 percent of the vote.

The new and amended Ireland Constitution will now say that two people can marry, “without distinction as to their sex”. Ireland’s minister of state for equality, Aodhan O Riordain told NPR that the way this statement is worded is meaningful because it uses the same phrasing that extended voting rights to women in Ireland.

Eighteen other countries aside from Ireland have allowed same-sex marriage, however Ireland was the first to do so using a voter referendum. The way other countries legalized same-sex marriage was either through legislative or court actions.

The vote represents an enormous cultural shift for the largely Roman Catholic country where contraception was prohibited until 1980, homosexuality was still a crime until 1993, and divorce has only been permitted since 1996.

On Saturday after the law was passed, Irish Senator Katherine Zappone took the chance to propose to her wife on air Saturday.

The United States has worked on passing gay marriage laws on a state level, however there has yet to be any success on passing a law on a national level that legalizes gay marriage.

“I think that it’s ridiculous because … we have separation of religion and state. Also, homosexuality and bisexuality appear in nature, so why should we forbid humans to do something that is so natural”, said VHS senior Claire Rysavy.
“I think that it should be legalized but the way (gays) go about it, such as (holding) parades is wrong because it isolates them. This defeats the idea that they are like everyone else.  The argument should be that we are in love and we are the same,” said VHS senior Natalie Derosa.