With all the commotion and controversy surrounding the election, it may have gone unnoticed that, in the space of one day, Ireland made a huge leap forward for gay rights.
On Friday, for the first time ever, the Irish people elected an openly gay person to the Dáil. In fact, they elected two, both members of the Labour party. More importantly, the two individuals ran, not as "gay candidates", but as candidates who just so happened to be gay.
On the same day, with a lot less commotion than the election, the first public civil union occurred in Dublin. While not the first to take place (two couples had already married in private), they were the first to allow a newspaper to cover the event (The Daily Mail, no less). Considering it was just 18 years ago that homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland, it is clear, as a society, we've moved so far forward.
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