Same-sex marriage debate heats up
STEINBACH, MB-A city deep inside Manitoba's Bible belt was host to the largest turnout of people to date attending hearings on whether same-sex marriage should be legalized.
There was standing room only on April 4 at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum in Steinbach, Manitoba as the crowd swelled to an estimated 300 people. Some sported "support traditional family" stickers on their lapels; others wore a rainbow flag.
The mood was tense but subdued as presenters for and against the traditional definition of marriage made their cases before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which visited 11 cities across Canada throughout the month of April.
The committee was asked to research the definition of marriage last year, after the release of the "Marriage and Legal Recognition of Same-sex Unions" report by federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon in November.
Roger Armbruster, a former Niverville, Manitoba pastor and leader of a ministry working with indigenous leaders in Canada's north, told the committee it is tradition on trial.
"Traditional marriage has been a cornerstone of Western civilization," he says. "Traditionally, human rights were not based upon autonomous personal desire, but on the need to preserve the intergenerational community. The purposes of sexuality in traditional marriage were not only for pleasure and personal communion, but also to initiate and maintain family units."
Armbruster, and others at the hearing, say that while same-sex couples may be good parents, children still fare better with the emotional support of a biological family.
Status symbol
But Winnipeg lawyer Lisa Fainstein says the argument holds no water, as procreation is not part of the legal definition of marriage.
"Marriage accords status," she says. "We recognize when people are married where they stand in the universe." Civil unions, a solution touted by some in the faith community as an alternative to using the word marriage, are not acceptable for that reason, she says.
Same-sex relationships are "marriage-like in everything but name," says Elliot Leven, commissioner for the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, urging the committee "to recommend to government to change the legislation for same-sex couples to marry."
Hedy Fry, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre and a member of the committee, several times challenged those in favour of traditional marriage.
What is the harm in legalizing same-sex marriage, wondered Fry, comparing the religious community's opposition to years ago when women were fighting to get the vote, or when people of different faith backgrounds were forbidden to marry.
"Why should we stick with a tradition-millennia-long it may be-when we've seen tradition set aside for the sake of human rights?" Fry asked.
"The world did not come to an end" when other laws were changed, she said. "Indeed marriage was strengthened?People are breaking down the door to get in, so they must believe in it." And, she added, the legislation would not force churches to marry same-sex couples, only that those who wished to do so could.
Faith support
Several of those supporting gay and lesbian marriages say their faith compels them to fight for same-sex marriage.
"We want our children to be happy and satisfied," says Helen Hesse, a member of the United Church who is married with four sons, one of whom is gay. "The choice [to marry] should be available to all."
Society regards her son as "less worthy than his heterosexual siblings," she says. "Legislation needs to keep pace with social development. The gender of these two people is irrelevant. The relationship is what's important."
"We cannot impose our beliefs on one another," says Janine Gibson of the Northern Sun Farm Cooperative, adding that her reading of the Bible shows we must practise acceptance and "love as Jesus did-the marginalized of His time."
Gibson says same-sex marriages "do not threaten in any way" traditional marriage, but increases financial stability and shelters children. "The more we accept diverse family units, the more stable the family," she says.
But local pastor John Neufeld said that is not the case, pointing to a wide collection of research showing that children suffer if their biological family is disrupted. Neufeld also referred to an increase in police costs, crime and medical costs.
"We need to do what we can to strengthen the biological family," he says. "We have families outside the biological, and they need our support. But we need to hold up the ideal and move Canadians toward that ideal."
While "we believe all men and women are created by God?and that the Charter of Human Rights should protect all individuals, as Christians we believe this [marriage] is God's design from the very beginning."
"This initiative is an attempt to get heterosexuals to accept homosexuality as normal."
Those favouring maintaining the traditional definition of marriage are not suggesting same-sex couples are second-class, says Armbruster. They already have many of the same rights and benefits as married couples since the passage of Bill C-23.
But, he says, "Marriage is more than a social contract. It is a covenant and holds a spiritual component the state cannot legislate."
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