Bradley Miller—Same-Sex Marriage Ten Years On: Lessons from Canada

Posted by Kendall Harmon

...the limited American experience with same-sex marriage to date gives us few concrete answers. So it makes sense to consider the Canadian experience since the first Canadian court established same-sex marriage a decade ago. There are, of course, important cultural and institutional differences between the US and Canada and, as is the case in any polity, much depends upon the actions of local political and cultural actors. That is to say, it is not necessarily safe to assume that Canadian experiences will be replicated here. But they should be considered; the Canadian experience is the best available evidence of the short-term impact of same-sex marriage in a democratic society very much like America.

Anyone interested in assessing the impact of same-sex marriage on public life should investigate the outcomes in three spheres: first, human rights (including impacts on freedom of speech, parental rights in public education, and the autonomy of religious institutions); second, further developments in what sorts of relationships political society will be willing to recognize as a marriage (e.g., polygamy); and third, the social practice of marriage.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths

3 Comments
Posted December 4, 2012 at 4:30 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Capt. Father Warren wrote:

Actually, no need to wait 10 years and no need to filter lessons from Canada;

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/marriage/effects_of_ssm.html

December 4, 7:22 pm | [comment link]
2. Ian+ wrote:

Speaking as a Canadian who just moved to the US (not because of this, though), if you speak out publicly against it, you can be prosecuted under hate-speech laws. And if you are a civil servant licensed to marry, and refuse to preside at one on religious grounds, you can be sacked.

December 4, 9:26 pm | [comment link]
3. New Reformation Advocate wrote:

Thanks to both #1 and #2.  Yes, there is serious reason to be worried.  This fine article is admirably objective and persuasively argued, and I wish it could be widely circulated and read, as it deserves to be.

But of course, while Canadian society may be the most similar to that of the USA, it might be helpful to consider more distant parallels as well.  I’m thinking especially of Scandanavia and the disastrous effect that the legalization of same-sex marriage and the promotion of the pro-gay agenda and the moral relativism that undergirds it has had on the Lutheran Church in Sweden, Denmark, etc.  Of course, there is always the chicken and egg question of which came first, or rather the prior issue of whether there is a cause and effect relationship at all, or whether both same-sex marriage and the devastating decline of the Church are jointly products of some common root problem (such as the mass adoption of the illusion of moral relativism as the dominant ideology of the age).  But what is undeniable is that in Canada and in Scandanavia the moral revolution has gone hand-in-hand with a relentless decline in the former established churches.  More troubling yet, is that in Scandanavia as well as Canada, the “new orthodoxy” brooks little dissent and the freedom of religion has been gravely compromised.

Bottom line:  It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

David Handy+

December 5, 3:40 pm | [comment link]
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