CLGRO
The Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights in Onatario
Coalition pour les droits des lesbiennes et des personnes gaies en Ontario
Presentation
to the Federal Consultation
on Same-Sex Marriage
April 10, 2003 8:30 a.m. Toronto Delta Chelsea,
33 Gerrard St. W., Mountbatten Salon
| 1. | We are here to represent the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO), and we believe that the State has no business in the marriages of the nation. |
| 2. | CLGRO is a not-for-profit incorporated body made up of about 20 lesbian, gay and bisexual groups and hundreds of individual members across the province, founded in 1975. |
| 3. | We appreciate the opportunity to address this Parliamentary Committee, which we requested because we want to let you know that there are some in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual communities who would support the option of adopting a Registered Domestic Partnership type of system. |
| 4. | This would be a form of optional civil union for all relationships, and the only legal form of recognition, whether opposite-sex or same-sex. |
| 5. | Couples married through religious ceremonies and those in common-law relationships could be registered, if they wished, as registered domestic partnerships, with both types of relationships being equally recognized in law. |
| 6. | Details of the kind of system we would support are documented in our written submission and by the Law Commission of Canada in their publication Beyond Conjugality. |
| 7. | In keeping with the concept that the State has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, and no business in the marriages of the nation, the State should not be regulating personal relationships on the basis of conjugality. |
| 8. | The term "marriage" is closely associated with conjugality. Therefore, the state should not be attempting to regulate marriage. |
| 9. | Marriage should not be a relationship that is legislated at all by the government. Marriage should be a purely religious ceremony with no legal implications. It should no longer be given special status or legal privileges. |
| 10. | Those who attach strong spiritual, religious, or symbolic significance to the traditional concept of marriage should certainly be able to retain access to that type of recognition through religious or spiritual institutions. |
| 11. | Our concern is that such marriages should have no standing in law unless they are also a separately "registered domestic partnership" recorded by a legal authority. |
| 12. | The current legal system of granting rights, privileges, and responsibilities to people who happen to be in couple relationships should be abolished and replaced with a system based on the individual as the core unit, with allowance for support of others (such as children). |
| 13. | A system of registration, wherein participants negotiate and document the expectations of the partnership in an atmosphere of equity and informed consent, would allow for the evolving diversity of relationships in modern Canadian society, and help to strengthen individual rights within those relationships. |
| 14. | If the Government decides that legal regulation of marriage must continue, then on the basis of equity we support changing the laws to recognize same-sex marriages. |
| 15. | We do not support a discriminatory form of registered domestic partnerships that would be applicable only to same-sex couples, with marriage being reserved exclusively for opposite-sex couples, even if there would be no legal differences between the two in respect of rights, privileges, and obligations. |
| 16. | There should be no hierarchy of legally recognized relationships, such as placing marriage at a higher level than common-law relationships or non conjugal relationships. |
| 17. | We believe that adopting a system of "registered domestic partnership" goes beyond creating a situation of equity for the lesbian gay and bisexual communities to benefit all members of Canadian Society. |
http://www.web.net/~clgro/ (e-mail: clgro@web.ca)
For the Law Commission of Canada's recommendations on partnership recognition see:
Beyond conjugality
Better ideas. And you've likely never heard of them
Two-ring circus
Parliament's peripatetic public spectacle
Ideas in play (List of contents)
Gay marriage? Wrong question (Lead page)
My home page
This page: http://www.rbebout.com/getfree/clgro.htm
April 2003 / Last revised: May 1, 2003
Rick Bébout / rick@rbebout.com