Gay Today: World

Controversial Same Sex-Marriages
in Toronto, Canada

Compiled By GayToday

Toronto, Canada--There will be a wedding Sunday, January 14 at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto (MCC Toronto). For the two couples involved in this double ceremony, the walk down the aisle will be part of what the MCC calls “a long and challenging journey.”

Reverend Brent Hawkes

Media from other nations will be on hand as Kevin Bourassa marries Joe Varnell and Elaine Vautour marries Anne Vautour. Many who passionately oppose same-sex bonding will be protesting.

At the center of this public but personal wedding will be the couples' friends and family and Reverend Brent Hawkes, Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.

Reverend Hawkes recently discovered that his church has authority to follow an ancient Christian tradition: the publishing of banns of marriage in churches. Such publishings do not require of those being married that they obtain a license.

Consistent with the process for publishing these banns of marriage, during three consecutive weekly MCC Sunday services in December, the Reverend Hawkes announced from his pulpit that Kevin Bourassa wished to marry Joe Varnell and that Elaine Vautour wished to marry Anne Vautour.

For those same three consecutive Sundays, the minister asked that objections be announced by anyone who had legal grounds to oppose the forthcoming marriages.

Having heard no objections based on the law as outlined in the Ontario Marriage Act, Reverend Hawkes announced on December 24, 2000 that the double wedding would proceed.

Ontario's banns of marriage contain no texts that require of couples that they be of the opposite sex. This small but explosive detail finds gay rights activists and their opponents deadlocked about the legality of same-sex marriages in Ontario, arguing their cases before the Ontario Divisional Court.

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:

Canadian Church to Legally Marry Same-Sex Couples

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Reverend Brent Hawkes is following a long and fiery tradition of social activism at his church, part of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC).

Reverend Troy D. Perry, Founder and Moderator of UFMCC, performed the first same-sex marriage designed to challenge the state marriage laws of California in 1970. The ceremony was conducted under a provision of California law that allows a common-law liaison to be formalized by a religious ceremony. Later, the marriage was found to be illegal.

In 1987 and 1993, Reverend Perry organized "The Wedding", public demonstrations that were at once political protests in support of same-sex marriages and serious commitment ceremonies.

Another "Wedding" was conducted in front of the Lincoln Memorial in April, 2000, as part of the Millennium March on Washington in Washington, D.C. Drawing over 3,000 couples from North America and abroad, that event currently stands as the largest same-sex wedding demonstration and celebration in history.

Reverend Perry has been carefully monitoring events at MCC Toronto.

He said:

"Reverend Brent Hawkes and the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto congregation are to be commended for the courage that they are showing by performing this first legal marriage of gay and lesbian couples in North America.

“Our denomination will continue the struggle worldwide to see that the day comes when every culture permits the marriage of our people."

“Until that day, however, the issue of love must continue to take a back seat to the law.”