What could have been Ontario’s most controversial marriage in memory is going ahead surprisingly without a hitch.
Liberal Deputy Premier and Health Minister George Smitherman announced a year ago he will marry his longtime partner, Christopher Peloso.
Some details since have trickled out – not quite on the scale of a royal wedding, but we know more about these nuptials than the vast majority performed in the province.
The couple will marry at a wilderness lodge north of Elliot Lake on Aug. 5 in an informal, no-ties-allowed, ceremony performed by a justice of the peace.
After a lakeside party, the happy couple will honeymoon briefly on a canoe trip, because Smitherman has to return to campaign in the Oct. 10 election.
Peloso has explained he was attracted to Smitherman because he is dedicated and intelligent and has a gentle, loving side, which opposition politicians know little about, because he is the legislature’s most pugnacious politician. A Justice of the Peace who gets the vows mixed up may be in for a tongue-lashing.
This also is the province’s first same-sex marriage involving a high-profile politician since such marriages became legal and may seem an ideal target for the many who oppose same-sex marriages.
But scarcely an eyebrow has been raised publicly in a province where most politicians voted for strict limits on gay rights a decade ago and many objected later when the courts and legislators approved same-sex marriages.
Progressive Conservative leader John Tory, whose predecessors opposed gay rights most, sent Smitherman a note of congratulations and bottle of champagne. Tory has long supported gay rights and some of his MPPs who disagree are keeping quiet to preserve unity.
A New Democrat elected a few months ago, Paul Ferreira, joked across the legislature “is Bob going to be your best man?” because Smitherman has supported former NDP premier Bob Rae unsuccessfully for federal Liberal leader and now as candidate in the federal riding with which they share boundaries.
Smitherman countered “when are you and your partner prepared to follow my lead?” because Ferreira is among declared gay MPPs, who include Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
Roy McMurtry, once a pillar of the Conservative establishment and recently showered with praise on retiring as Ontario’s chief justice, said the proudest moment of his long career was helping write a ruling that excluding gays from marrying violated the Charter of Rights in the Constitution and ending many years of cruel discrimination.
The 27th annual gay pride parade in Toronto also passed without incident, but gays still face obstacles in many places. The Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran Churches voted the same weekend not to allow the blessing of same-sex marriages in their churches.
In Quebec, Andre Boisclair has been forced to step down as leader of the Parti Quebecois after losing an election in which his homosexuality cost votes among rural dwellers.
The first openly gay judge in Canada, Harvey Brownstone of the Ontario Court of Justice, said many gay lawyers still keep their sexual orientation secret, because they fear if it becomes known it will hurt their careers.
A business leader in Britain, Lord John Browne, was forced to resign and give up $35 million in retirement benefits essentially because he is gay: he told a court he met his lover in a park although he found him through an escort service – it was a white lie trying to make himself seem more acceptable.
The city of Moscow banned a parade by gays, some of whom were punched and kicked by counter-demonstrators shouting “death to homosexuals” and calling them “evil.”
In Jerusalem, 7,000 police officers were deployed to protect 2,000 gay marchers from religious Jewish extremists who objected to their parading in a city they hold sacred and one objector was arrested carrying a bomb.
Ontario has not had even a few snide comments on the legislature’s first gay wedding and – whichever side you support in this debate – this is rare tolerance and something to be proud of.
