Canada Passes Same Sex Marriage

[XTC]

By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 47 minutes ago



TORONTO - Canada's House of Commons passed landmark legislation Tuesday to legalize gay marriage, granting same-sex couples legal rights equal to those in traditional unions between a man and a woman.

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The bill passed as expected, despite opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders. The legislation drafted by Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal Party government was also expected to easily pass the Senate and become federal law by the end of July.

The Netherlands and Belgium are the only other two nations that allow gay marriage nationwide.

Some of Martin's Liberal lawmakers voted against the bill and a Cabinet minister resigned Tuesday over the legislation. But enough allies rallied to support the bill that has been debated for months, voting 158 to 133 to approve it.

Martin praised Tuesday's vote as a necessary step for human rights.

"We are a nation of minorities," Martin said. "And in a nation of minorities, it is important that you don't cherry-pick rights."

There are an estimated 34,000 gay and lesbian couples in Canada, according to government statistics. Before the measure passed, gay marriage was legal in seven provinces.

Alex Munter, national spokesman for Canadians for Equal Marriage, which has led the debate in favor of the law, was triumphant after the vote: "The genius of Canada, almost unparalleled in the world, is built on shared identity, out of respect for each other."

Martin, a Roman Catholic, has said that despite anyone's personal beliefs, all Canadians should be granted the same rights to marriage.

Churches have expressed concern that their clergy would be compelled by law to perform same-sex ceremonies, with couples taking them to court or human rights tribunals if refused. The legislation, however, states that the bill only covers civil unions, not religious ones, and no clergy would be forced to perform same-sex ceremonies unless they choose to do so.

The Roman Catholic Church, the predominant Christian denomination in Canada, has vigorously opposed the legislation, saying that it would harm children in particular.

Charles McVety, a spokesman for Defend Marriage Canada and president of Canada Christian College, called the vote an "onerous breach of trust and the deconstruction of so much that is dear to our hearts."

Flanked by clergymen, McVety vowed his group would work to vote out lawmakers who supported the legislation in the next general elections.

"This is the beginning of the formal fight against the redefinition of marriage," McVety said. "We will, in the next election, be able to correct this incredible democratic deficit before us today."

The debate in Canada began in December, when the Supreme Court ruled that passage of same-sex legislation would not violate the constitution.

According to most polls, a majority of Canadians supports the right for gays and lesbians to marry. In the United States, gay marriage is opposed by a majority of Americans, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll taken in November, shortly after constitutional amendments in 11 states to ban same-sex marriage were approved.

Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriages; Vermont and Connecticut have approved same-sex civil unions.

Roberta Sklar, spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C., said same-sex American couples applaud Canadians.

"We know that it has been somewhat contentious in Canada, but at the same time the Canadians have largely approached this issue in a rational and democratic way and are providing a very positive model for the rest of the world," Sklar said.

Though hundreds of foreigners have come to Canada to seek civil ceremonies since gay marriages were first allowed in Ontario and British Columbia in 2003, not all countries or states recognize the unions. While a slew of Israeli men were married in Toronto City Hall earlier this year, for example, the Israeli Interior Ministry does not recognize those unions.

In the United States, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage and most states refuse to acknowledge marriage certificates from gay and lesbian couples, regardless of where they wed.

___

On the Net:

Canadians for Equal marriage: http://www.equal-marriage.ca

Defend Marriage Canada: http://www.defendmarriagecanada.org


It's about time some nations get with the program! Maybe America can learn something from their neighbors to the North.

XTC Reviewed by XTC on 06-29-2005. Canada Passes Same Sex Marriage By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 47 minutes ago TORONTO - Canada's House of Commons passed landmark legislation Tuesday to legalize gay marriage, granting same-sex couples legal rights equal to those in traditional unions between a man and a woman. ADVERTISEMENT Rating: 5

[pisshead]

oh my god!!! people are going to start marrying their hamsters and parrots now!!!

we can't have this!

now we all just have to realize that marriage is something the government has nothing to do with in the first place...

[Stedric]

About time.

[ermitonto]

Excellent news! Let us hope that this trend spreads all over the globe and institutionalized homophobia is abolished once and for all.

[Stedric]

Excellent news! Let us hope that this trend spreads all over the globe and institutionalized homophobia is abolished once and for all.

We can hope, and we'll keep fighting for it, but I doubt homophobia can be abolished completely. This is a step.

[ermitonto]

Yes, you're right, there will always be ignorant people who think gays are inferior, but we can at least try to stop the governments from falling for it (what I meant by institutionalized homophobia).

[Torog]

Yes, you're right, there will always be ignorant people who think gays are inferior, but we can at least try to stop the governments from falling for it (what I meant by institutionalized homophobia).

Howdy ermitonto,

I don't think gays are inferior,but I do think that the compulsion to have sex with the same sex,is dysfunctional and defective,because humanity reproduces heterosexually..not homosexually.

You should be happy that Spain has also passed gay marriage just today or yesterday..the march towards Sodom and Gomorrah..continues...

Have a good one....

[harmonicminor]

well at least its good for population controll

[Fengzi]

..the march towards Sodom and Gomorrah..continues...

....

Some of the stuff Torog says used to piss me off. Now I just find him laughable. Am I the only one who thinks this guy would be a great character on SNL?

[ermitonto]

Howdy ermitonto,

I don't think gays are inferior,but I do think that the compulsion to have sex with the same sex,is dysfunctional and defective,because humanity reproduces heterosexually..not homosexually.

You should be happy that Spain has also passed gay marriage just today or yesterday..the march towards Sodom and Gomorrah..continues...

Have a good one....

The idea that the only sexual acts that produce more humans are the only moral ones is ludicrous. Is oral sex immoral? Are all the animal species that engage in homosexuality immoral? Homosexuality does not pose a threat to society. In fact, I can't see why we would want to make everybody engage only in the kind of sex that can make more people with this overpopulation crisis going on. I also can't see any reason to deny homosexuals the right to marriage, or to deny any group of people any right for that matter, unless you somehow view them as inferior.

The argument that homosexuality can't make more people, therefore it is immoral, is lost on me.

And using the Bible to discredit homosexuality isn't going to convince me either. Homophobes often like to quote the passage that says a man should not lay with another man or whatever, but then they completely ignore the next chapter in which it is said we should stone disobedient sons to death.