WASHINGTON (ABP) — As Canada's lower house of Parliament voted to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide June 28, evoking strong responses from groups on both sides of the issue across the border in the United States.
The House of Commons voted 158-133 to legalize marriage in the handful of Canadian provinces and territories in which courts had not already approved the practice. While the vote was mainly symbolic, it divided the governing Liberal Party and will likely be seized on as a campaign issue by members of the minority Conservative Party in upcoming national elections.
With the move, Canada becomes only the third nation in the world to give full legal sanction to same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands and Belgium.
With Canada located right next to the United States and offering marriage licenses to non-resident couples, U.S. groups with interests in the issue paid particular attention to the development.
“Canada is a beacon to the world on making sure that all families are protected by the same rights and responsibilities. This is an historic vote on the most basic values of equal rights and responsibilities for every family,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, in a June 29 statement. Americans should look at the fair way in which Canada is treating its citizens and know that no harm is coming to anybody as a result. This is about basic fairness.”
American same-sex couples have been getting married in Canada since 2003, when courts in Ontario and British Columbia legalized the practice in those provinces.
Groups opposed to gay marriage said the decision is evidence that the United States needs a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
“Already numerous court cases in the United States have been initiated by homosexual couples 'married' in Canada” seeking to have their marriages recognized at home, wrote Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in the June 29 edition of his e-mail newsletter. “While the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has been upheld in most of those cases, it is just a matter of time before an activist judge here in the U.S. decides to overturn DOMA.”
The Canadian Senate is reportedly expected to approve the bill as well.