These LGBT+ people have shown heartwarming acts of solidarity in abortion vote countdown
Repeal the 8th (Getty)
The LGBT+ community has joined in solidarity with campaigners in the final rundown to repeal the eighth amendment.
The campaign to repeal the eighth amendment hopes to remove the law restricting women accessing abortions in the Republic of Ireland.
While some members of the queer community have travelled across the world to ensure that they can vote in the referendum, other LGBT+ student groups have donated funds so that women can return to Ireland to cast their decision.
A picture shows a poster urging a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution (Photo by Artur Widak / AFP)
Twitter has been set alight by the #hometovote hashtag, which has detailed the LGBT+ community’s dedication to voting in the decision.
A man who benefited from the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015 said that he would be casting his vote to “return the favour.”
And one lesbian campaigner has said that repealing the eighth will not only help other women, but it will stop her confusing “international lesbian mutuals.”
“Next Friday every citizen 18 and over will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make Ireland a more caring and compassionate country,” co-chair of Labour LGBT Aoife Leahy told The Hot Press.
“Just three years ago we made history by making Ireland a more equal country for LGBT people. Now we need to come out for all those who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy so they can be cared for here, instead of continuing to export our problems elsewhere.”
In a GCN survey, 565 LGBT young people aged 13-24 were asked how they would vote. 85 percent said they would vote to repeal the eighth.
In an act of “solidarity,” LGBTQ campaigners in Ireland are covering up graphic anti-abortion images with rainbow flags, as the country prepares to vote on whether to repeal its abortion ban.
Women walk past a poster by the Irish socialist feminist and pro-choice activist group ROSA (Photo by Artur Widak / AFP)
However, Irish citizens have to be at least 18 years old to vote, so campaigners are urging the community to remember that every vote counts.
The eighth amendment came into being after a 1983 referendum.
This restricted the rights for Irish women to access an abortion to only when carrying the child put the pregnant woman’s life at risk.
A man walks in front of a pro-choice mural in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland (Photo by Artur Widak / AFP)
The referendum on whether the country should remove the ban will take place on Friday.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is also campaigning to repeal the eighth.
BERLIN, GERMANY – MARCH 20: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty)
Varadkar is the first openly gay man to take the Prime Ministerial role in the nation.
“It’s not a vote on me, not a vote on the government. It’s a vote as to whether we trust the women of Ireland to make decisions about their own lives for themselves,” he said while canvassing in Dublin, reported the Financial Times.
