remarkable speech by Canadian PM Martin re: gay marriage . . .

Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin on Bill C-38 (The Civil Marriage Act). Text and video available
February 16, 2005
Ottawa, Ontario

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=421

(snip)

Remember that it was once thought perfectly acceptable to deny women "personhood" and the right to vote. There was a time, not that long ago, that if you wore a turban, you couldn’t serve in the RCMP. The examples are many, but what’s important now is that they are part of our past, not our present.

Over time, perspectives changed. We evolved, we grew, and our laws evolved and grew with us. That is as it should be. Our laws must reflect equality not as we understood it a century or even a decade ago, but as we understand it today.

For gays and lesbians, evolving social attitudes have, over the years, prompted a number of important changes in the law. Recall that, until the late 1960s, the state believed it had the right to peek into our bedrooms. Until 1977, homosexuality was still sufficient grounds for deportation. Until 1992, gay people were prohibited from serving in the military. In many parts of the country, gays and lesbians could not designate their partners as beneficiaries under employee medical and dental benefits, insurance policies or private pensions. Until very recently, people were being fired merely for being gay.

Today, we rightly see discrimination based on sexual orientation as arbitrary, inappropriate and unfair. Looking back, we can hardly believe that such rights were ever a matter for debate. It is my hope that we will ultimately see the current debate in a similar light; realizing that nothing has been lost or sacrificed by the majority in extending full rights to the minority.

- more . . .

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=421

and unreasonably fair.

INVADE CANADA

Seen all too infrequently in the US.

He expertly puts to rest all the same arguments against equality WRT marriage that fundies here make all the time. I teared up at one point because it's so screamingly simple; the truly fair-minded can see it so clearly, but the act of opposing it only seems to come from some negative (hate, piety, control, inequality) angle.

If you watch the video of PM Martin, check out the guy sitting behind him nodding his head in agreement all the time. I was nodding in a lot of the same places! :)

going to move to Canada if Bush was reelected: Can I come with?

I have to admit, I never thought I'd see Paul Martin do or say anything to make me feel so proud of my country. Good on ya, Mr. Prime Minister.

Gay marriage is good, for one reason because marriage and monogamy are correlated, so people concerned about the role of promiscuity in the process of HIV transmission in the gay community should support gay marriage.

would, if anything, want to speed up the process of HIV transmission in the gay community.

Yeah, right? What oppressive assholes anti-SSM people can be.

I say, "Either support gay marriage and (along with other measures like reinvigorated outreach campaigns, devising new outreach strategies) help establish an environment conducive to diminishing HIV transmission rates in the gay community, or don't but then watch those rates go up and ask yourself how your opposition helped contribute to that."

Under pressure but he's still not backing down. Good. I bet that the PM's been getting a whole load of hate mail from certain right-wing groups in Canada (and their sponsors from across the border, too).

Watching Canada on this is so inspiring! :hi:

Even Gilles Duceppe (BQ leader) who rarely uses English in the house spoke in English to make his point crystal clear in favor. I think Martin will win this easily. We know how the NDP will support this and many Red-tories will vote for it.

but my heart swelled when I heard that speech. Right now, I'm very, very proud to be Canadian. :toast:

It cuts right through the crap that Harper, leader of the faux Conservatives, has been spewing. It is a matter of equal rights, full stop.

Harper is digging his hole deeper and deeper, imo, on this issue. He is showing Canadians that his old bigoted ways while he was in the Reform party are still alive no matter how hard he tries to cover it with a new party name.

Check out what they say about "religious freedom"

"In this, we are guided by the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada, which makes clear that in no church, no synagogue, no mosque, no temple – in no religious house will those who disagree with same-sex unions be compelled to perform them. Period. That is why this legislation is about civil marriage, not religious marriage."

Boy, that is a great paragraph.