Biden hails Ireland’s vote to legalize gay marriage

by Jordan Fabian - 05/27/15 12:41 PM ET

Vice President Biden on Wednesday applauded Ireland for becoming the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage via popular vote.

“Last weekend, more than 1.2 million Irish voters took a courageous stand for love and family when they overwhelmingly chose marriage equality,” Biden wrote in an op-ed in The Advocate.

“They recognized the fundamental truth that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, and that there can be no justification for the denigration or persecution of anyone because of who they love or who they are,” Biden added.

{mosads}The vice president is the highest-ranking White House official to comment on Ireland’s vote, which occurred Saturday.

Biden noted the vote was a dramatic shift for Ireland, a predominantly Catholic nation where homosexuality was illegal until 1993.

“In 22 years, Ireland has gone from a nation where simply being LGBT was against the law to a nation where the people resoundingly stand for equal rights,” he wrote.

The vice president wrote “there is still work to be done” in the United States and other nations to protect the rights of LGBT individuals.

“There are still too many nations that deny people even the right to be safe from violence and severe discrimination, and too many states here in America that allow a person to be fired simply for being lesbian, gay, transgender, or bisexual,” he said.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide a case this summer that could knock down state bans on same-sex marriage.

In 2012, Biden famously forced President Obama’s hand when he publicly announced his support for same-sex marriage before the president himself had done so.

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