sex, politics and religion – how we won marriage in ireland and the usa

13th April, 2016, Fairsay Conference, Oxford 2016 Dr Grainne Healy Ireland, Thalia Zepatos USA – Sex, Politics & Religion: How we won marriage equality in Ireland and America 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X_Xl6kCUUI

GAZE Film of the day of the win

Winning Marriage in the US

State Anti-Gay Constitutional Amendments & Laws

WV

CTMA

NJDEMD

WA

CA

ID*

NVUT*

AZ

MT

WY

CO

NM

TX

OK*

KS

NE*

SD*

ND*

MN

IA

MO

AR*

LA*

WI

IL IN

MI*

MS AL* GA*

FL

TN

KY*NC

SC*

VA*

OH

PA

NY

ME

RI

VT

NH

WA

OR

MT

CO

AZ

TX*

MNWIWI*

OH*

PA

ME

FL*States with Anti-Relationship Recognition Constitutional Amendments (20 states) Alabama (2006), Arkansas (2004), Florida (2008), Georgia (2004), Idaho (2006), Kansas (2005), Kentucky (2004), Louisiana (2004), Michigan (2004), Nebraska (2000), North Carolina (2012), North Dakota (2004), Ohio (2004), Oklahoma (2004), South Carolina (2006), South Dakota (2006), Texas (2005, Utah (2004), Virginia (2006), Wisconsin (2006)

AK

HI

*states where language goes beyond just marriage and affects other legal relationships, such as civil unions or domestic partnerships

States with Anti-Marriage Laws (35 states) (includes above lists minus Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon): Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wyoming

Updated: November 8, 2012

States with Anti-Marriage Constitutional Amendments (10 states): Alaska (1998), Arizona (2008), California (2008), Colorado (2006), Missouri (2004), Mississippi (2004), Montana (2004), Nevada (2002), Oregon (2004), Tennessee (2006),

5

Winning in the Courts

State Legislative Victories

Winning State Referenda

Oregon: Yes on 36

2004 Campaign Messages

11

We Must Remember That What Motivates Our Base Is Very Different

EqualityDiscrimination

It’s just rightJUSTICE

Benefits RightsResponsibilities

Fairness Dignity

Fair

Basic

Historic

It’s time

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Split Sample: Why do couples get married?

Couples like me Same-sex couples0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

18

42

72

36

922

For rights and benefitsFor love and commitmentDon't know

13

Why Marriage Matters

Conversation Campaigns & Long-Form Conversations

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But where did the campaign for marriage equality in Ireland begin?

Katherine Zappone & Ann Louise Gilligan, married 2003 – High court case 2004 & KAL initiative

Marriage Equality – launched 2008 ‘Seeking civil marriage equality for same-sex couples’

A referendum? Huh! Never! Having to ask everyone in Ireland for permission to marry the person you love! That would be funny -

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=B211IE0D20140711&p=sinead%27s+hand

24

Vision from Values

25

26

27

We are family, children, parents, grandparents, team mates … 1.1 million booklets

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How far did the Irish Marriage Referendum Campaign Travel?In terms of reach, there were an estimated 1 billion global impressions generated

from 467,323 Twitter mentions by 384,002 users in the week leading up to voting day. Conversations surrounding the Irish Marriage Referendum were had in all four corners of the world. As you can see from the map below, noise was concentrated in neighbouring countries

(UK, Spain, France and Germany) and countries with strong Irish heritage  e.g. North America (east coast in particular), Australia and New Zealand.

Campaign StatisticsLogistics

• 5000 Posters erected across the country• 500,000 badges (TA and YES Badge)• 1.3m household leaflets delivered to 1.1m homes• 465,000 lapel stickers• 1,420,000 flyers• 6300 T-shirts• 800 Hi Viz Vests• 2,300 Tote Bags.• Over 70 groups established around the country• 1 pop up Shop at Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre manned by volunteers• 300 businesses large and small formally joined the campaign.• The Yes bus travelled 11,000 Kilometres, 80 Locations, 26 Counties, 29 days

Social MediaFacebook:• 67k+ likes• 2.8m reach• Average of 2,000 timeline views per dayTwitter• 15k followers• 2k tweets• 155k page views in the last month• 5.7m impressions in the last month• #MarRef – 11.1m ReachYouTube• Over 150 videos on YouTube with almost 1,000,000 viewsInstagram• 7,000 followers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx4XFO39It8

Last week of the campaign video – looking back and call to vote!

Videos of appropriate messengers with messages: Pat & Paddy (parents to joan) https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=B211IE0D20140711&p=Paddy+and+Pat+marriage+equality+video Brigid & Paddy (#votewithus) http://www.votewithus.org/video/brighid-paddy/ Male hurling stars (equal playing pitch) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y90vxqH3HwU

Mrs Brown (use of comedy) http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/brendan-o-carroll-and-mrs-brown-call-for-yes-vote-1.2191810