Ireland Needs Billions

Sigh.

The Right Thing To Do

Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, declines to march in the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade because the organization behind that parade won't allow gays to participate. I've been amazed at recent indications of how tolerant Ireland is becoming, and appalled at how stubborn we are here. Why the surprise, in both respects? Have I been expecting too much from America? Not enough from Ireland?

Meanwhile, in Ireland

67% support the right of gays to marry. And a whopping 91% say they would not think less of a person for being gay. (I'm a little skeptical with this one.) These are amazing statistics.

But then, only 46% think gays should be able to adopt children, while 38% think they should not. These numbers make for a somewhat confusing composite - but what do you expect when opinion is in flux?

Which brings to mind a caveat that's always worth remembering when looking at numbers on gay issues: we can easily measure how widely support spreads, but it is harder to measure its depth. In other words, things can change just as fast in the opposite direction.