Hozier celebrates Irish vote on gay marriage

Given that Hozier's breakthrough song (Take Me to Church) is about sexual orientation and institutionalized bigotry and shame, it's no surprise that the Irish singer took to Twitter on Saturday to celebrate the landmark referendum on gay marriage in his home country.

Here's what he told New York magazine about the song last year:
"Take Me to Church is essentially about sex, but it's a tongue-in-cheek attack at organizations that would … well, it's about sex and it's about humanity, and obviously sex and humanity are incredibly tied. Sexuality, and sexual orientation — regardless of orientation — is just natural. An act of sex is one of the most human things. But an organization like the church, say, through its doctrine, would undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation — that it is sinful, or that it offends God. The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love. Turning your back on the theoretical thing, something that's not tangible, and choosing to worship or love something that is tangible and real — something that can be experienced.

But it's not an attack on faith. Coming from Ireland, obviously, there's a bit of a cultural hangover from the influence of the church. You've got a lot of people walking around with a heavy weight in their hearts and a disappointment, and that (expletive) carries from generation to generation. So the song is just about that — it's an assertion of self, reclaiming humanity back for something that is the most natural and worthwhile.

To me, it's not even a gay issue or a civil rights issue, it's a human rights issue, and it should offend us all. It's just simple. Either somebody has equal rights, or they don't. And certainly in the Irish constitution, marriage is genderless. There's no mention of a man and a woman. I didn't even have that many close LGBT friends or anything like that, but I suppose it was growing up and becoming aware of how you are of a cultural landscape that is blatantly homophobic. I'm sure it's the same over here. Where you turn around and say, Why did I grow up in a homophobic place? Why did I grow up in a misogynistic place? You grow up and recognize that in any educated secular society, there's no excuse for ignorance. You have to recognize in yourself, and challenge yourself, that if you see racism or homophobia or misogyny in a secular society, as a member of that society, you should challenge it. You owe it to the betterment of society."
And yes, we know it's Saturday, but let's go to Church anyway. Check out the video of one of Hozier's earliest U.S. performances, recorded right here at Paste BN.