Vice President Joe Biden says the recent vote in Ireland to legalize gay marriage was a “courageous stand for love and family.”
Writing in IrishCentral, Biden said in 22 years, Ireland has gone from a nation where simply being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender was against the law to a “nation where the people resoundingly stand for equal rights.”
He thanked Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Joan Burton, quoting Kenny as saying that the vote will be “heard loudly across the living world as a sound of pioneering leadership.”
Biden famously endorsed gay marriage ahead of his boss, President Barack Obama in 2012, saying on Meet the Press that he supported same-sex couples getting married. Three days later, Obama announced that after "evolving," he would back gay marriage.
Biden noted that in the past three years, the United States has gone from six states recognizing marriage equality to 37 states.
“It’s about love. It’s about equality. It’s about dignity. It’s about our most cherished values,” he said, adding that there was still work to be done.
“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 wrote.