Vice President Joe Biden praised Ireland for becoming the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
“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 for The Advocate published Wednesday.
“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 about Ireland’s vote, which happened Saturday.
Biden becomes the highest-ranking White House official to comment on the legalization thus far.
Homosexuality was illegal in Ireland, a predominantly Catholic nation, until 1993. Biden noted the shift.
“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.
However, he said in the U.S. and other nations, “there is 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 said.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision later this summer that could pave the way for legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
