What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
(and remember, you can always e-mail me if you love or loathe anything you're about to read)...


   Tuesday, September 28, 2004

HALFWAY HOME

This past Friday, Nova Scotia became the sixth province in Canada to legalize same-sex marriage. This comes less than two weeks after Manitoba did the same. This leaves five provinces and one territory still in the twentieth (if not nineteenth) century.

Of course, that's just geography. The fine folks at ReligiousTolerance.org point out that, population-wise, things are rosy:

Assuming that same-sex couples are evenly distributed across Canada, 82.3% of them can marry after 2004-SEP-24 without having to leave their province or territory of residence. In fact, many gays and lesbians gravitate towards the larger cities like Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver where same-sex marriage is already allowed. So the actual percentage of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in committed same-sex relationships who are now able to marry in their own province or territory is probably somewhat higher.

As always, though, it's the homos in rural areas who still have a rough road ahead so the work isn't over yet. The funny thing about the same-sex marriage debate for me is that I'm still not completely sold on a system that bestows benefits on married people and leaves out singles. Trying to visit someone in the hospital, for instance, and being kept out because you're not "family" bothers me immensely and I don't see how gay weddings will change that beyond a lucky few.

But progress comes in inches and gay marriage is merely that -- though you wouldn't know it from the overblown rhetoric of those opposed. A same-sex marriage bill in Spain (a friendly home to the far more subversive filmmaker and provocateur Pedro Almodovar) led to this pronouncement:

"[Same-sex marriage] would impose on society a virus, something false, which will have negative consequences for social life," [Catholic bishop] Juan Antonio Martinez Camino said.

I'm confused -- I thought rampant promiscuity was supposed to have negative consequences for social life (like actual viruses) -- but here's the part that I loved most:

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office in April, intending to remove what he called the Church's undeniable advantages...The changes have distressed and outraged the Church, whose influence on Spaniards has declined precipitously since the death in 1975 of the dictator General Francisco Franco. His regime was closely linked to the Church.

Ah, yes, the glory days with Generalíssimo Franco, who famously said, "Our regime is based on bayonets and blood, not on hypocritical elections," and proved it by having nearly 20,000 political prisoners put to death over his 36-year reign. Good times!

And people wonder why I'm so hard on the Church. I'm a fair guy, though, so I'll make the Pope and his gang an offer: I'll shut up when they shut up.

Labels: Canada, Trawna