February 1e- Same-Sex Marriage in Canada (1)

Same-Sex Marriage in Canada

What is Marriage For?

  • Earlier historic period: marriage viewed as a contractual business relationship for family unit

  • Industrial and post-industrial period: marriage focused more on psychological relationships and the importance of feelings

Sexual Citizenship in Canada

  • early 1900s: homosexuality considered deviant behaviour; indicative of mental pathology

  • 1950s-1960s: The Cold War and The Fruit Machine

  • 1969: consensual sex between 2 men >21 decriminalized (P.E.T.: “no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation”)

  • 1996-sexual orientation is added to the Canadian Human Rights Act

  • 2000-Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act is passed

Same-Sex Marriage Canada

  • 2001- Reverend Brent Hawkes marries 2 same-sex couples in his Toronto Church

  • city refuses to recognize the marriages; the city, province and federal government were sued

  • 2002- Ontario Appeals Court rules that the marriages were legal

  • 2003- Ontario Court rules that the definition of marriage as “one man and one woman” was invalid

Same-Sex Marriage Canada continued

  • 2003: Michael Leshner and Michael Stark become first couple to marry

  • 2004-Supreme Court of Canada rules that federal government, and not the provinces, have the authority to legislate the definition of marriage

  • 2005-Same-Sex marriage is legalized through the passing of Bill C- 38 ‘…lawful union of 2 persons to exclusion of all others’ Section 15: Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Bill C-38: Those in Support

  • The Religious Coalition for Equal Marriage Rights:

    • United Church of Canada

    • Canadian Unitarian Council

    • Muslim Canadian Congress

    • Canadian Friends Service Committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

    • World Sikh Organization

    • Canadian Rabbis for Equal Marriage

    • Metropolitan Community Church

    • Ahavat Olam Synagogue (Vancouver)

    • Church of the Holy Trinity (Anglican) (Toronto)

    • Apostolic Society of Franciscan Communities-Canada

    • Saint Padre Pio Congregational Catholic Community (Toronto)

    • many individual members of the Buddhist, Catholic, First Nations, Hindu, Mennonite and Muslim communities

Bill C-38: Those Opposed

  • Traditional family values groups e.g., The Canada Family Action Coalition

  • Conservative religious groups

The Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage

  • 2001-Netherlands

  • 2003 Belgium

  • 2005-Spain; Canada

Canadian Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage

  • Support for same-sex marriage: 2005 versus 2015 ~50% versus 70-80%

  • Disapproval more common among:

    • older males in lower income brackets

    • Albertans

    • least educated

    • those with a conservative political orientation

  • Forum Research,