Sauron

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2999270.stm

Sakpo

Heh, and if I'm not mistaken, by treaty the United States recognizes Canadian marriages... hmm. Let's see what happens when an American gay couple gets married at Niagra Falls (easy fast weddings, sort of like Vegas, and on the border) and then comes back home to Texas...

Jat

He doesn't have to force Churches since a couple can get married without having a wedding at all. Marriage is the legal contract. A wedding is only a ritual. Anyone can perform a wedding ceremony, but only someone who is legally approved by the state can marry a couple under the law. In other words they never actually needed the Church's approval in the first place.

Jimmy Higgins

Almost makes me want to get out and get a gay marriage, despite that heterosexual fetish of mine, and stick to the "Right". ;D

Ensign Morituri

Slate.com did an article on this possibility yesterday: http://slate.msn.com/id/2084477/

Sauron

That's quite a reasonable compromise, actually. Don't like gay weddings? Fine. We won't force you to perform them. That way you get to keep your biased bronze-age goatherder beliefs intact, while the rest of society rolls along to progress, unimpeded by them.

But it won't matter, in the final analysis. There are enough churches that *will* perform the marriage.

And, of course, our wiccan, pagan and Asatru friends are chomping at the bit to perform such marriages - and they constitute legally recognized churches.

Sakpo

And there are always civil ceremonies too, and government agencies in Canada aren't allowed to discriminate against people because of sexual orientation. So, even if someone couldn't find a church willing to marry them, they'd just have to head down to the city hall (my parents got married by a civil servant* at Vancouver City Hall).

*Possibly a judge, maybe it was the courthouse? Anyway, it's irrelevant, the point is civil marriages in Canada are easily obtainable and have the same legal standing as church marriages.

Edit: If anyone's curious, I looked at a photo from the day and they're outside city hall. So it's probably just some person certified to perform marriages they have at city hall.

Ron Garrett

FYI Howard Dean pushed for and signed the domestic partnership laws in Vermont that legalized gay unions back in 2000. His attitude toward personal automony and limited government interference in private life is downright Libertarian. Another reason to love the man. He sent me a fundraising letter pointing out that he signed this law on 4/27, and that if I agreed with him to make my check out with an extra $4.27 tacked on to indicate my agreement that government should provide equal protection under the law to gays and lesbians, which of course I did. What I hate about the RR's that have hijacked the Republican party is they are all about division:racial, sexual, religious, national. I'm tired of the xenophobe, homophobe, no "who's lied about WMDs" probe assholes. They gots to go!

FoE

Do church marriages have legal standing? I was under the impression that once you had signed the marriage papers you were as good as married.

Buddrow_Wilson

I love it! Way to go Canada! Lotsa sanity going on up there.