It’s about time

Well, the CBC is reporting that things are finally rolling. (If you’ve been living in a cave for the past couple of years, you can catch up at the CBC Indepth page for this issue.)

The Liberal government introduced its same-sex marriage bill in the House of Commons Tuesday, kicking off the next stage of a fierce debate that will spur some MPs to vote against party lines.

For the record, and it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, I am extremely pro on this issue. I do see it as a rights issue, and, as usual, I am tired of religiously motivated oppression. I’ve debated the question with many people, especially people who present a ‘this will weaken or destroy our society’ argument, and really tried to understand how they could feel that allowing gay marriage in any way affects them. At the end of the day every argument I’ve seen, when reduced to it’s underlying semantic content boils down to either “we can’t allow it because God said so” or “we can’t allow it because gays are icky, and may eat our babies or something”. Needless to say, neither of those positions impresses me much.

The Department of Justice has a document up explaining the proposed law. I am particularly impressed with parts of the Principles section, including the “Reverend Neimoller” bit:

The Government believes that same-sex couples should have equal access to marriage – anything short of that is less than equal and discriminatory. The Government cannot, and should not, pick and choose whose rights they will defend and whose rights they will ignore. If the fundamental rights of one minority can be denied, so potentially can those of others. This bill will respect and defend the Charter rights of all Canadians.

and the “Damn it, we already proved ‘separate-but-equal’ is still discrimination” part:

Many Canadians support legal recognition for same-sex unions, but want to call them something other than marriage, such as civil union. Civil union is a separate institution from civil marriage, does not respect the right of same-sex couples to equality without discrimination and is in breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The scary thing is that there is even a chance this thing might not pass. Take a minute and write your MP and tell them that we need pass this bill–you’ll feel like you are taking part in democracy. (Actually, if your MP is BQ or NDP, you are probably OK. Liberal MPs who are ministers–like mine–are voting the party line, so you don’t need to write to them, although I wrote to mine anyway. If your MP is Conservative, you have some letter writing to do. And especially if your MP is a Liberal back-bencher, make sure you write in. You can find your MP and their contact information at the Parliament site.)