It's official! Canada's House of Commons has legalised same-sex marriage throughout their wide and fair and bountiful and chilly and moose-infested land. The NDP, the Bloc Quebecois, and most of the Liberals backed it, although one Liberal minister left the Cabinet in order to vote against it. Naturally, the Conservatives were opposed, and Stephen Harper is threatening to 'revisit' the legislation if his party ever comes to power. Which just means we'll have to make sure they never do! Never ever ever never ever never never never ever ever ever vote for a Conservative. They have shown themselves to be small men with smaller minds and still smaller hearts.
For your convenience, here's the story in the Toronto Star.
"(This) is about the Charter of Rights," Prime Minister Paul Martin said earlier Today."We are a nation of minorities. And in a nation of minorities, it is important that you don't cherry-pick rights.
"A right is a right and that is what this vote tonight is all about."
...
But an Irish-born rookie Liberal MP was quoting Trudeau's famous line about the state having no place in the bedrooms of the nation.
Michael Savage spoke poignantly about a member of his own family, and described the tolerance that he says makes Canada special.
"I have not compromised my faith in supporting this legislation. I have embraced it," he said.
"The fact that we (in Canada) are among the first is not something we should hide. It's something we should celebrate. . . .
"(We are) a nation of equality. A nation of strength. A nation of compassion. A nation that believes we're stronger together than we are apart. And a nation where we celebrate equality. . . .
"We will send a statement to the world that in Canada gays and lesbians will not be considered second-class citizens."
And the Globe and Mail:
One Tory MP scoffed at the Liberals' self-proclaimed defence of human rights. He said the government has failed to protect the rights of children by refusing to toughen child-pornography laws or by raising the age of sexual consent above 14.“I'm sick and tired of hearing people on that side of the House talking about rights, rights,” Myron Thompson said.
During the final hours of debate on the bill Conservative MP Dave Chatters of Alberta asked, "What will be the next step down the infamous slope?""Will it be legalizing polygamy? Legalizing prostitution? Legalizing hard drugs or maybe just working for organized crime to import strippers and drugs? God only knows, Mr. Speaker."
The legislation applies to civic weddings at public venues like city halls and courthouses. Religious groups still have the right of refusal to sanctify same-sex marriages, but opponents of the bill are vowing to keep up their fight -- fearing they could be sued for refusing to carry out same-sex marriages."(This) is effectively exposing people of faith to persecution and prosecution," said Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition. "I want to make it very clear today that this is the beginning of the formal fight against the definition of marriage."
...
[Alberta's conservative Premier Ralph] Klein said although some members of his caucus are threatening to use everything at their disposal to get around the legislation, "there are no legal weapons; there's nothing left in the arsenal."
What a great way to cap off Pride Month. What a beautiful, absolute, irreversible victory. Not just for gays and lesbians, but for the very ideas of equality, dignity, and justice.
Apparently George Bush made some kind of speech tonight. I wish I could sit him down in my living room tonight, look him in the eyes, and tell him to go fuck himself off a bridge. Because this has a hell of a lot more to do with freedom, and decency, and courage, and the triumph of hope than anything that tiny little man has ever dreamt of.
Thank you, Paul Martin. Thank you for acknowledging that I am human.
I just saw an aged, bald man in a skin-tight leather bodysuit walking his dog down the street.
Perhaps this is a metaphor for alienation in today's society.
Or perhaps it's just really sweaty.
One of the great things about the Internet is the way it grants me access to the little nuggets of joy floating around in the television medium, without all of the baggagy crap like ads or broadcast schedules or owning a television. Today, I discovered this glittering gem from the Daily Show...
It's two human rights triumphs for the price of one: gay marriage in the Canadian military!
Let's let that sink in.
Not only does Canada allow gays and lesbians to serve openly with honour and respect in its military (such as it is)...
Not only does Canada (in most of its provinces) allow gays and lesbians to marry...
Now the gays in the military are marrying.
Pretend I have a photograph of it right here. No...Here. Down a little. To the left. There. Now look at it. Take a good long look. Use your imagination, god damn it. Play along. Are you looking? Good. This is what freedom looks like. Suck it up.
Freedom is on the march!
Freedom, I said!
Perhaps you are confused. I know that, according to no less an authority than the President of the United States of America, freedom involves keeping your trap shut and waving the flag while we rough up nations full of dusky people. Believe it or not, freedom is not in fact synonymous with escalating violence and deception while the media defers to a power-mad elite dragging virtually every facet of the nation into a gigantic clusterfuck (to use the technical term). One of the many horrible things about the American President is the way he keeps ass-raping the language of idealism. Freedom, in fact, involves being free. Like those two Canadian soldiers: able to shape their own destinies without the scolding interference of bigots.
Freedom is on the march!
...Of course, there's always someone ready to piss on the parade.
I think that we should all try to be more aware and appreciative of those stars within twenty light-years of Earth, and all that they do for us. Won't you spare a thought for van Maanen's star, the closest white dwarf without a binary companion?
Thank you.