With Canada Day just passing, I've got many reasons to be proud of Canada, but that's not the only thing that happened this past weekend.
My friend Stephy married her girlfriend Amber the day after Canada Day.
I'm not sure why they picked that date, if it had something to do with the long weekend, Canada Day, or the Pride Parades happening all over, but I do know that it came coincidentally close to the day when New York legalized gay marriage, though that didn't particularly matter to them, as they got married in Saskatchewan.
I intended to write about Canada Day this week, maybe compare the different ways that a Canada Day spent in Bonnyville is different and similar to the ones spent in Vancouver or Halifax or on Parliament Hill.
However, I think this topic is more important, and also relevant.
I'm incredibly proud to live in a country that recognizes, even if some of its population does not, the right for anyone – gay, straight, or transgendered, to formalize their love with marriage.
I've been told at various times during my defence of gay marriage that it's wrong, or that we ought to arrange some other social and legal construct to give gay men and women the rights of marriage without calling it marriage, because calling it marriage was asking too much of straight people. We can't expect the societal expectations of marriage to change overnight. Those same people say it goes against God and destroys the sanctity of marriage.
There are plenty of historical examples I could pull up to show that society changes, as we grow and evolve as a society, we realize that some things we thought were OK were not – imperialism, slavery, the subjugation of women, just to name a few.
Human rights have always been a little flexible as we reevaluate and realize we were wrong. I think denying the right to marriage, the recognition that the union between two men or two women, is wrong.
Saying societal expectations should not have to change is like saying we never should have given women the vote. Just because we have held a certain belief before doesn't mean we can't change it when we've realized it was wrong.
As for the religious argument, I think Steve Simon, member of the Minnesota state legislature, said it better than I ever could on May 2 when he said, “How many more gay people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether or not God actually wants them around? How many gay people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether the living of their lives the way they wish, as long as they don't harm others, is a godly and holy and happy and glorious thing?”
I believe God would be more comfortable with love between two men or two women than he would the way our society sees fit to judge and condemn our fellow men and women for the way he made them.
I believe the sanctity of marriage lies in the willingness to commit to being together, being faithful, and above all, loving each other, and if a man and a woman or a man and a man or a woman and a woman are willing to do that, then I don't think that does anything except reaffirm the sanctity of marriage.
I'm willing to bet this isn't a shared opinion among everyone around here, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Email me about the issue even if you want to disagree or tell me how wrong I am. I suppose I can handle that, but it won't change my mind or stop me from being more proud of Canada for legalizing gay marriage than I am for almost anything else Canada has ever done.
