Ireland recently became the first country to ask its people whether it should legalize gay marriage in a national referendum. Being a traditionally Catholic country, the result was expected to be tight, but the nation said YES with a strong voice and gay marriage was legalized with 62% of the population in favor.
But in the run-up to the referendum last May 23, there was a lot of ugly propaganda being spread by the ‘NO’ campaigners. They printed flyers telling people that various high profile, sadistic British child sex offenders like Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter were in favor of gay marriage, and made ridiculous claims that gay people contract cancer earlier in their lives. Luckily, a company called Daintree thought of a creative way to deal with the haters, and A Shred Of Decency was born.
According to the makers, this is wedding confetti ‘made from recycled lies’. As their promo video (above) explains, “We want to collect any negative and dishonest leaflets, flyers, and online literature, and recycle them into something positive.” All proceeds from the sale went to the YES equality campaign. In the run-up to the vote, so many people- gay and straight- bought the confetti that Daintree sold out of Shred of Decency.
Then, on the day that Ireland voted yes, a beautiful rainbow appeared over Dublin, prompting lots of excited people to get on social media and wonder if it was a YES vote from Jesus. Here’s one image from Flickr user pani.minister:
If that wasn’t heart-warming enough, here’s a cute video of people celebrating the Yes vote at Dublin castle, and we’ll leave you with one of the best gay rights commercials ever…can you imagine asking four million people’s permission to marry the one you love?
