Over the course of the last 50 years, the world in which we live has changed dramatically. The twentieth century has seen unimaginable violence as well as the rise and fall of political powers and devastating regimes. We have seen hundreds of years of oppression come to a halt when Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president of South Africa and the end of an era as the Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1981. Nevertheless, through all this evolution and revolution, improvements and advances, one thing still has a long way to go: the view on homosexuals, especially their right to marry. Yet, even though there are politicians across North America who are trying to ban same-sex marriage and religious institutions that refuse to acknowledge same-sex marriage as legal, Canada, a country with a population of only 32 million, is well on her way to becoming the first North American country to completely legalized same-sex unions. This paper will explore and explain the cons of the same-sex marriage debate, especially those of certain religious institutions and the homophobia and heterosexism that exist in Canada today.

A new chapter in the history of human rights was written on June 10th, 2003: the Ontario Court of Appeals came to the conclusion that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was unconstitutional and came to a unanimous decision that it should be legalized in the province (Whitehead). A little over six months later, both British Columbia and Quebec followed suit, now representing 76 percent of Canada’s population (McKenzie). Quebec is the most recent province to jump on the legalization bandwagon, when five appeal court justices on the Quebec Court of Appeal, collectively dismissed an appeal by religious groups to outlaw same-sex unions, on the count it was unjustified under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (McKenzie). The one legal loophole is the provincial government cannot coerce religious establishments into performing the ceremonies (Tibbetts). Newly elected Prime Minister Paul Martin has even gone on record stating that he would enforce Canada’s notwithstanding clause if the Supreme Court rules that churches must perform same-sex marriages (Tibbetts). Although Martin is a devout Catholic, he is in favour of same-sex union bill, though, does not believe “religious institutions should be bound to it” (Tibbetts).

Speaking of devout Catholics, Pope John Paul II remains untouched on his position to legalize same-sex marriage (Winfield). Along with the Vatican, John Paul has instituted a campaign to disallow same-sex unions, claiming a “misunderstood sense of right was altering” the sanctity of heterosexual marriage (Winfield). This crusade came to fruition after courts in Massachusetts, Vermont, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec ruled same-sex unions as legal (Winfield). As one can see, this directly violates the Vatican definition of marriage, as a union between a man and a woman (Sensing). Furthermore, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, an orthodox branch of the Vatican, released a paper that petitioned for Catholic politicians to uphold their moral duty and ban same-sex unions, saying “To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral” (Winfield).

In contrast, psycho-biologists believe that denying same-sex marriage rights on the basis of religion is futile, as studies have shown that marriage is a social institution rather than a religious one (Sensing). The Vatican argues that in Christian theological terms, marriage is a way to procreate and produce children, yet socio-biologists argue marriage is only a method used by females to guarantee “sexual loyalty and assistance in child raising” (Sensing). With this being said, even though marriage has decreased by 43% since 1960 and the divorce rate in the United States is now at 50%, four out of five Americans consider an unwed mother and her children to be a family, yet less than one in three would apply the same term to a homosexual couple raising children (Young). One of the strongest arguments pro-homosexual marriage writers have, is even women who are infertile or men that are sterile still have the same rights to marry, albeit it goes against the procreate and populate model both the Pope and Vatican are continually emphasizing (Young).

All throughout history, there have been cases of discrimination, whether it is in the form of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. Yet, as history has proven, ideas, attitudes and beliefs change, seeing as racial and religious discrimination have been in continual decline since the beginning of the twentieth century. Now, homophobia, which is defined as: “aversion to gay or homosexual people or their lifestyle or culture” has the spotlight (Psychology of UC Davis). This aversion is shown over and over again in politics, most recently in Texas where John Lawrence and Tyron Gardner were jailed and fined 200 dollars after police caught the two men having sex in Lawrence’s house (Young). The case, which was brought to the Supreme Court, argues that it is unconstitutional to be imprisoned for having consensual sex in the privacy of one’s own bedroom (Young). Homophobia plays a role in this, since the state of Texas has banned homosexuality because they found it to be “immoral and wrong” (Young). Even Canadians do not escape this paradigm. Heterosexism, which is defined as, “an ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any non-heterosexual form of behavior, identity, relationship, or community” exists in our own Canadian government (Psychology of UC Davis). David Kilgour, MP of Edmonton, went on record saying to legalize same-sex unions would be like legalizing “polygamy and incestuous marriage” (Pederson). Most recently, with U.S president George W. Bush, trying to make same-sex marriage illegal in the United States Constitution, it seems as if tolerance has a long way to go before it can be achieved (Bayles and Stone).

Yet with the recent turn of events, who knows exactly what will happen in the future. Canada is well on its way to completely legalizing same-sex marriage and various countries in Europe have already begun doing so. The side against same-sex unions still remains strong and unphased in their opinions and those for the legalization of same-sex marriage are fighting continually to bring equal opportunity to the world. Supporters remain optimistic that soon this will be nothing more than a distant and absurd memory.

[ main page ] . [ guestbook ] . [e-mail ]