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

[Christopher Rose]

May God cast his righteous judgment upon this wicked generation.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph De Witt <ralphdewitt at charter.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 10:59:08 -0500
To: christiansource at ofb.biz
Subject: [CS-FSLUG] Canada's Yukon allows gays to marry 

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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."
> - -- 
> 	Yours,
> 	Ralph.
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