| I didn’t expect to be leaving an anti-same-sex marriage demonstration with positive feelings, but that’s the way it was. On April 9, the March for Marriage and Freedom brought thousands of demonstrators to Parliament Hill from all over Ontario and from Montreal. A smaller simultaneous gay-positive rally with people from Ottawa and elsewhere in eastern Ontario brought out a few hundred.
Similar events were held throughout Canada over the weekend – including Calgary, where a rally was held to show support for Catholic Bishop Fred Henry’s opposition to gay marriage, the Rainbow Pride Project celebrated the unfurling of a 500-foot Gay Pride banner in support of gay rights, and an interfaith coalition demonstrated their support for same-sex marriage.
The surprising thing about the "anti" crowd in Ottawa was that, for the most part, participants did not display the kind of anti-gay bigotry that I expected and that would certainly have been present, say, 20 years ago. One man had a crudely made placard calling for hatred of "fags and dykes," but people did not respond favourably. "Bullshit" was the comment from one person, and when a Catholic woman from Montreal was asked for her reaction, she took one look at the sign and began to tell its owner off in no uncertain terms.
So what was motivating these "antis," and how have we as a society reached this point? When questioned, people uniformly expressed concern about expanding the definition of the word "marriage." There was fear – fear of change and fear of the unknown. The reaction of the Montreal woman and of the other participant quoted illustrates a certain level of tolerance and a desire for "fairness," however that might be defined.
The next obvious question is, how did we get to the point where the opponents of gay marriage in Canada are reasonably civil? This is more complicated. We have come from a time when homosexual acts were punishable by law, to a time where the opponents are talking about permitting a status of civil union with all the trappings of marriage save the name.
When looking for social causes, it’s difficult to know where to start. It is always possible to push back farther to earlier forces at work, but let us at least focus on a few of the factors that have brought us to the present state – factors that are themselves not mutually exclusive.
For a long time, until about 1970, divorce in Canada was very hard to obtain. As a result, it was not uncommon for people to form new unions while still legally married to others. The status of such unions was, if not equally sanctioned, at least not totally beyond the pale. We became somewhat more relaxed about sex outside marriage.
Another major influence was the development of the oral contraceptive, a landmark event in the change of sexual mores. This invention was a powerful impetus for feminism, putting women’s destiny more under their own control. It also served to separate recreation from procreation. As far as gay rights are concerned, that aspect is central – no longer could the contention that sex equals procreation go unchallenged.
Social movements often imitate and feed off one another. Thus, the civil rights movement influenced the development of the feminist movement, and both of these served as inspiration and example for the gay rights movement.
The altered face of religion in Canada has been another important factor. On the one hand, participation in religious services has been in sharp decline. On the other, factors within denominations have had an impact. Sexual abuse by Catholic priests has led to skepticism toward church teachings about sexuality. Elsewhere on the religious landscape, the same social forces that have been at work in the larger society have also been at work in Protestant denominations. As a result, today the United Church, our largest Protestant denomination, supports gay marriage, and the issue is threatening to tear Anglicanism asunder.
There you have a brief sketch of some underlying forces at work in bringing us to the point where gay marriage is on the agenda. A history of common law relations because of strict divorce procedures, the pill, the example of other justice-seeking movements, and the changing role of religion in Canadian life.
As recently as five years ago, Parliament, in line with the thinking of an overwhelming number of Canadians, passed legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Today, barring a Gomery-based end of this government, we are on the verge of Parliament changing the definition to permit same-sex marriage. That change in position is caused by two factors: the continuing influence of the gay rights movement and concomitant influences listed above on the one hand, and the decision of Ontario’s highest court that the old definition violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on the other. The door to gay marriage would have been opened eventually even without that decision, but it speeded up the process, giving momentum as well to other courts both in Canada and the U.S.
The appeal to the courts struck at the point where a democracy is most vulnerable: where it is accused of violating democratic rights. This court decision moved gay marriage up on the agenda and convinced the federal Liberal leadership that it could not win in court. As a result of this switch and all the other forces at work, public opinion has also shifted. Even the opponents of gay marriage are now civil. If the minority government lasts, the change will come sooner. Otherwise, it will come later, but come it will. No pun intended. |
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