Today in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, homosexuals are legally entitled to walk down the aisle and get married, just as legally as any man and woman. When Ontario's marriage law was struck down, homosexuals gained the right to be married, and several did. In July of 2003, a similar court ruling in British Columbia made same-sex marriage legal in that province as well. A court ruling from Quebec expected this month may do the same there, making same-sex marriage as legal as traditional man/woman marriage in Canada's three largest provinces. Federal Justice MinisterMartin Cauchon is promising to pass a same-sex marriage law, opening the door for a Canada-wide recognition of homosexual marriage.
Conservatives (generally) as well as religious folk who view marriage as a religious institution endorsed by God (generally) are rather upset that Canada appears to be on the cusp of passing into law the full right to "holy matrimony" for a man and his husband, or a woman and her wife, that previously only was open to couples of the opposite sex. Now I'm sure many of the God-fearing support same-sex marriage just as there are those against it who wouldn't know a church from a bus station. The United Church of Canada will be marrying homosexuals after all. The reasons people are against homosexual marriage vary as well, ranging from "It's just not natural and thinking about what they do turns my stomach" all the way to "God doesn't want it, it isn't natural, (and besides, thinking about what they do turns my stomach.")
Just so that you know, I'm personally in favor of allowing same-sex marriages. I don't believe that if Dorothy and Doris want to stop living in "sin," my own marriage will be devalued. Of course I'm not that religious, but my wife believes in Him and she feels the same way, I promise.
On Sunday, September 7, the Canada Family Action Coalition called for "Marriage Prayer Rallies" in front of the offices of each of Canada's 301 federal representatives, gathering the support of various conservative Christian organizations, as well as REAL Women. I thought it might be an idea to check out the local demonstration, like a real reporter. So off with my camera I went, stopping at the local dollar store to pick up a little notebook to record the experience and any worthwhile quotes, and with luck, I thought, it would be a xenophobic gay-bashing festival, chock full of spitting and hate and excellent photo opportunities.
Arriving at the office of my local MP, Dr. Bernard Patry (Liberal - Pierrefonds/Dollard (Quebec,)) who is on record as being in favor of same-sex marriage, I was disappointed to be the only soul there. Still alone 10 minutes before the 3 o'clock scheduled starting time, I was planning to snap a picture of the empty space in front of the offices at precisely 3PM and leave it at that.
Fortunately with only 6 minutes to go, people started showing up, beginning with Pastor Scott, one of the ministers of the local Living Word Community Church (not apparently affiliated with any "Living Word Community Church" I could find on the internet.) He spoke to me for a few minutes, stressing several times that there was "no heterosexual agenda" for this event. The prayer meeting was to "stand for what we believe is the traditional view of marriage," "pray for the country," and to pray for Dr. Patry, "his cause, and the cause of marriage." Scott expected about 50 people to show up, which seemed to me at the time wildly optimistic given that it was already 3 o'clock and less than ten had arrived. By the time the meeting started, the group numbered about 20 and reached a high of exactly 30 (plus 3 or 4 small children) by half past three.
The bulk of the group appeared to be from Paster Scott's church, and the entire group was a decidedly evangelically Protestant bunch, forming a circle and for the most part listening to Pastor Scott and Pastor Terry (another minister from the church) lecture. Speaking to the assembled group, and no doubt knowing that they would be allowed to speak themselves, Pastor Scott stressed that there was to be "no anti-homosexual rhetoric" as the meeting was only for the "promotion of marriage for one man and one woman."
The Canadian National Anthem, "Oh Canada" was sung in both English and French, and Pastor Scott continued the sermon, saying in part that "The silent majority would begin to raise their voice" and that they had to "stand for what we know is righteousness," asking "forgiveness on behalf of our politicians" and advising the group to "pray for our country." Reading liberally from the bible, Pastor Scott called same-sex marriage "not an attack against society...it is an attack against God and His word."
Anybody who wanted to say a few words was encouraged to do so, and pretty much everybody stayed "on message" meaning there was almost no "Gay-Bashing." The exception being a fellow who no doubt inspired the phrase "Angry White Male." Bubbling over with (no so) repressed anger, after referring to either same-sex marriage or homosexuality in general as a "vicious attack against our youth," he went on to refer to homosexuality as a "hideous and sinful lifestyle."
At one point during the hour or so long meeting an older fellow who just happened by asked me what was going on. I did my best to give him the rundown, and with a worried look on his face he asked me "So are they against gay-marriage?" I replied that they were, and his expression visibly relaxed as he said, "Good!"
A few more speeches from the group, a "It's not about our own personal sexual preference, it's about what God wants" from Pastor Scott, a few hymns and the meeting came to an end.
Almost everybody I spoke to after the meeting was Über-Nice, including one Jennifer Celestin who wanted to know if she could write something for this website. (When she does, I'll put it up.) Of course the exception was "Angry Guy" who I just had to speak to. When I tried to talk to him, he declined to give me his name, and refused to allow me to post his picture on the internet. Although as a willing participant in a public, newsworthy event he can't stop me from posting his picture, I agreed to his request. He even took a little pocket camera and pretended to take my picture in an effort to scare me. I must admit that the crazed anger on his face and way he "threatened" to take my picture did actually startle me, but I attempted to pose and act nonchalant, and he relaxed, at least as much as he is able.
The Sanctity of Marriage website, (run by Canada Family Action Coalition) has posted some pictures from rallies across the country, including a photo from the Halifax event which they claim over 2000 people attended. I don't believe this. Working with the photo they published on their website of the Halifax event which I assume is of the bulk of the crowd, I put a dot on each person in order to more easily count them. I was only able to count 257 people in the photo (100 red dots, 100 blue dots, 57 yellow dots,) including those in the background who might have been only watching, and not necessarily participating. The three estimates I heard of the size of the crowd from other news sources for this the acknowledged largest crowd in the country were 300, 700 and 1000.
Their news report on National Prayer Rallies claims that between 80,000 and 100,000 people in total attended rallies, including 1000 in Medicine Hat. "Some ridings drew as many as 5000 participants" it goes on to say, but this is undoubtedly wishful thinking. In Martin Cauchon's own riding, the 9 people who showed up were outnumbered by reporters. To explain the low Quebec turnout, Brian Rushfeldt of Family Action informed me that Quebec had "no real organization" as far as they know. Assuming a turnout of about 20 for each Quebec riding and even 100 on average for every other riding in the country, produces a country-wide turnout of 24,100. Even accounting for Halifax and a few larger than average rallies (dismissing out of hand the unlikely claims of 5000+ attendees in some areas,) it's hard for me to imagine a Canada-wide turnout of more than 35,000. After the Pierrefonds/Dollard meeting, a petition was handed out for everybody to sign, and I can only assume similar petitions were circulated at almost every other rally. Maybe these signatures can be used to obtain a count that can be trusted.
In the end, the actual number of people who attended these rallies will matter much less than the number of people who feel strongly enough about this issue to cast their vote against those politicians who favor same-sex marriage, when put up against those who feel strongly enough to vote for those same politicians because of this issue.
It looks like same-sex marriage is coming, like it or not, even if it's delayed for now. If the argument against same-sex marriage is based solely on The Bible, and that is what I saw on Sunday, in a country where traditional religious beliefs hold little meaning to most, I don't see same-sex marriage being postponed indefinitely.
