Ireland: Bring your family with you

I love this video. It's the latest from the BeLonGTo Yes coalition in the Republic of Ireland, which is campaigning for a YES vote on marriage equality next month. The focus of this ad is bringing along one’s family to vote yes, but it also is about the importance of family.

I posted another ad from BeLonG To last November, that one urging young people to register to vote so that they could “make Ireland a more equal place for our LGBT friends”. BeLonG To is a youth services organisation, so that message made sense because of that alone, but also, as I noted last year, because throughout the West, young people are FAR more LGBT-supportive than their elders. They also support marriage equality by overwhelming majorities.

Which is why it’s so important to mobilise young voters. Polls in Ireland show that marriage equality is consistently ahead, but some pundits say it’s “soft” support, that many of the people who say they support marriage equality won’t actually show up to vote.

The ad above reinforces how important it is that LGBT people and their friends organise their families to go and vote yes. Our adversaries are organising their supporters to vote and, if the USA’s experience is anything to go by, they can be depended on to turn out to vote against freedom and liberty. The good people have to turn out in massive numbers to make sure marriage equality arrives in Ireland.

But the video above also helps make supporters feel connected to something large and positive, something bigger than themselves, a groundswell for moving Ireland forward. That’s another reason it’s so good. I hope they produce more ads at this level, because it’ll be vital to keep the momentum building.

However, I must repeat what I said last November: “As I’ve made abundantly clear plenty of times, I am utterly, completely and totally opposed to EVER allowing the majority to vote on whether minorities will be allowed the same rights under the law that the majority takes for granted.” That hasn’t changed. But hopefully, voters in Ireland will soon change their country and move it forward.

And I really do hope that supporters of marriage equality bring their families with them.

Footnote: BeLonG To Youth Services has produced a lot of absolutely brilliant videos, so their producing effective ads for the Yes vote isn’t at all surprising. I posted one of their anti-bullying ads back in 2011, and I still get teary every time I watch it. Check out their YouTube Channel for all their videos.