[CS-FSLUG] Canada's Yukon allows gays to marry

[Ralph De Witt]

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Canada's Yukon allows gays to marry 
      Jen Christensen, PlanetOut Network 
      Thursday, July 15, 2004 / 04:48 PM 

SUMMARY: The Supreme Court in the Canada's Yukon Territory ruled that the 
common-law definition of marriage limited to a man and a woman is "wrong and 
discriminatory."

Another Canadian jurisdiction said 'yes' on Wednesday to marriage for same-sex 
couples. The Supreme Court in the Yukon Territory ruled that the common-law 
definition of marriage limited to a man and a woman is, according to Judge 
Peter MacIntyre, "wrong and discriminatory."

Judge MacIntyre ordered the Yukon government to change the definition of 
marriage to "the voluntary union for life of two persons, to the exclusion of 
all others."

The judge read his decision to a packed courtroom. The couple contesting the 
old law, Stephen Dunbar and Rob Edge, have been fighting to marry since 
January, when they first applied for the license at the vital statistics 
office.

When that office turned the couple down, Dunbar and Edge appealed to the Yukon 
Human Rights Commission, and in June took their case to court. Through the 
attorney general, the federal government had recommended that the couple go 
ahead with the church wedding, but get the marriage license retroactively 
once Parliament passed a federal marriage amendment. Legal analysts said that 
process could have taken up to two years. Justice MacIntyre ruled that it was 
"legally unacceptable" to delay the license. The couple said getting a 
license retroactively didn't feel right.

"It would have felt like a hollow marriage," Dunbar said in a press conference 
after court. He told the press he and his partner will be legally married 
this Saturday.

"Our wedding this Saturday will be one of the most important days of our 
lives, symbolic of the commitment we feel for each other and wish to 
demonstrate to our friends, our family and our community," Rob Edge said. 
"It's an odd feeling to be explaining that to others. Hopefully someday 
nobody will question why same-sex couples want to marry."

British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and now the Yukon all allow gay couples to 
marry. The federal government has asked the Supreme Court of Canada for an 
opinion on the proposed federal legislation to legalize marriage for gay 
couples across Canada. In this past election, Prime Minister Paul Martin 
pledged his support for the federal legislation.

Advocates for marriage equality, like Laurie Aaron, the director of advocacy 
for Egale Canada, said this latest ruling should put the rest of Canada on 
notice and that marriage for all of Canada's gay couples should be legal.

"This ruling sends a message that governments across the country must now 
accept the Charter right of same-sex couples to marry in a civil ceremony," 
said Arron. "It is simply unacceptable to maintain the fiction that capacity 
to marry, which is federal law, is different from one province or territory 
to the next."
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