Yes Equality welcomes inspiring call by Mary Mc Aleese for a Yes vote

19 May 2015

Yes Equality Press Release
Tuesday 19 May 2015

The Yes Equality campaign has warmly welcomed the call for a Yes vote by Mrs Mary McAleese, the former President of Ireland.

Yes Equality spokesperson Grainne Healy thanked Mrs McAleese for what she described as “a powerful message of equality, inclusion and generosity which would resonate with all those people Yes Equality has had conversations with over the last eight weeks”.

At an event hosted by BeLongTo, Mrs McAleese called for a Yes vote in the marriage referendum. Emphasising that the referendum is about giving constitutional equality to lesbian and gay couples in secular marriage, she said: “I have yet to hear a single convincing argument which justifies this glaring inequality. Now we have a chance to remove it.”

Mrs McAleese also spoke of the positive impact on Irish people of a Yes vote. “Our gay children will be able to know the joy and peace and comfort of being part of a loving married couple, fully recognised at the highest level our country can offer”, she said.

Ms Healy said that “Mrs McAleese had placed the referendum in its proper context and has placed children and family central to the proposition before the people on Friday.”

“Her declaration that ‘a yes vote costs the rest of us nothing. A no vote costs our gay children everything’, was particularly poignant.”

“Her words provide the reassurance that this referendum is only about the extension of secular marriage to lesbian and gay couples and will only enhance the status and importance of all marriages, and of marriage itself in Ireland”

ENDS

Contact: Walter Jayawardene, Communications Coordinator
walter@yesequality.ie 087 9981574