CANADA OFFERS PREVIEW OF GAY-MARRIAGE IMPACTS: From the Denver Post

...Montreal sits in Quebec province, one of three in Canada where gay couples are allowed to legally marry. Ontario, just west of Quebec, and British Columbia, in the far west, also allow the marriages. The three are the most populous regions, housing three-fourths of Canada's 30 million people.

As the United States wrestles with the issue of gay marriage, Canada offers a window into what might sit on the horizon.

Polls show about half of Canadians oppose gay marriages, about the same proportion as in the United States. But the largest Canadian courts--as with the Supreme Court in Massachusetts--decided marriage laws must be rewritten to include gays and lesbians. The same-sex marriages started in Ontario about a year ago.

Last week, Canadians retained the Liberal Party as the controlling force in Parliament. The Liberal Party has said it supports legalizing gay marriage nationwide, as do two of the three other parties in Parliament. Gays who feared the country's Conservative Party would try to overturn marriage laws know that's not likely, at least not now. Of Parliament's 308 members, the majority comes from political parties that endorse an expansion of liberalized same-sex marriage laws. The Supreme Court of Canada, meanwhile, is considering the issue. Popular thinking is that the court will support gay unions. ...

While gay couples lined up to wed in Massachusetts and in San Francisco when municipalities allowed it, Canadian gays and lesbians aren't running to the courthouses. There's no official tally of how many gay couples have wed, but gay-rights groups put the number at about 3,000 nationally since Ontario first legalized the marriages in June 2003. Of those, they estimate 1,000 were Americans who then returned home.

This is happening as Canadian marriage rates are declining. Canada in 2001 recorded 4.7 marriages per 1,000 people, compared with a rate of 5.1 for the four previous years, and a 7.8 rate in the U.S.

Quebec province has the lowest rate of marriage in North America, at three marriages per 1,000 people.

Quebec residents said in interviews that the nonmarriage trend is a rebellion against the Catholic Church, which they feel controlled their lives for decades. The province is still about 90 percent Catholic, but as Niziblian explains, "The church doesn't have the same sort of influence on Canadians."

Canadians differ from Americans culturally in other key ways, said those tracking this issue. Americans focus on individual freedoms, while Canadians focus more on the rights of all members of society. ...

In 1982, Trudeau removed the Canadian Constitution from the British Parliament's jurisdiction. He incorporated into it the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is similar to the U.S. Bill of Rights. Soon, a series of court cases began to rule that the charter granted gays the same kind of anti-discrimination rights that all citizens shared.

Gay and lesbian groups began to demand the right to marry.

Parliament reacted in 1999 by voting overwhelmingly to affirm the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman. It was similar to a measure approved by the U.S. Congress and President Clinton in 1996.

But Canadian courts continued to rule in favor of same-sex marriage. In 2002, supreme courts in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec said the existing definition of marriage was discriminatory. The Ontario court told Parliament to resolve the issue. When Parliament failed to act, the court declared gay marriages legal in June 2003.

Gays began marrying the next day in Ontario.

Hendricks and LeBoeuf, who've been together 30 years, won their lawsuit against Quebec in March 2004.

In Canada, gay marriage brings only a few more tangible benefits than gay and lesbian couples already enjoy. Since 1997, gay couples that registered with the state have had most of the benefits of married couples, such as community property rights, tax benefits, the right to jointly adopt children, and some survivor benefits. It's called conjoint de fait, French for "spouse in fact." ...

Not all gays agree that legalized marriage is a positive thing. At a dinner party at Niziblian's home, two gay men debated whether the right to marry is an advancement.

"I just don't identify with an institution that was created for straight people," said George Berberian, 32. "It doesn't really suit gay people and their lifestyle."

Berberian said gay men primarily are motivated by sexual desire and stay together for shorter periods than heterosexual couples. He said that fighting for gay marriage is equivalent to conforming to heterosexual lifestyles and that gays instead should fight to be recognized for their differences.

Paul Dumont, 29, who also is gay, would like to get married.

"I still believe one day I'll meet the right person. I know it's going to be true love, and I want to celebrate that love," he said.

"You can celebrate it some other way," Berberian said.

"No, I want that ring," Dumont said with an impish grin.

Canadian groups that oppose gay marriages--most of which are religious--say redefining marriage violates their rights. It's equivalent to condemning one definition of marriage, they said, and imposing a new one.

"It's really the states and the courts imposing a particular moral code on some societies," said Daniel Cere, director of the Institute for the Study of Marriage, Law and Culture, a think tank.

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