Jun 13, 2003  |  By: KEVIN SPENCE  | COMMENTS     

TORONTO — Two Toronto men were married on Tuesday, in the first legal gay marriage ceremony in North America. The men immediately took advantage of a landmark Canadian appeals court decision that ruled that Canada’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

Just hours after the decision, Michael Leshner, 55, and Michael Stark, 45, tied the knot in a civil ceremony at the largest courthouse in Toronto. Leshner’s 90-year-old mother sang “O Canada,” the Canadian national anthem, at the historic union, which was attended by about 50 of friends and relatives.

“Yesterday, we were giddy with happiness,” Leshner told the Blade. Justice John Hamilton performed the ceremony.

“All we had to do was produce the license,” Leshner said. “He said it was an honor to marry us. They treated us like royalty."

In addition to allowing ceremonies like Leshner and Stark’s, the court retroactively validated the unions of two couples who had already been married by the Metropolitan Community Church in 2001.

Canadian officials have confirmed that gay couples from the U.S. may also be married in Ontario, leading American gay activists working on legalizing gay marriage in this country to ask whether American couples married in Ontario will have their unions recognized back home. They are also talking about the impact of the Canadian ruling on court cases and pending bills in individual states.

Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, is ecstatic about the decision.

“It puts tremendous winds in our sails in our freedom to marry movement,” said Wolfson, whose organization is seeking to win marriage equality nationwide.

Joanna Radbord, a gay marriage supporter in Toronto, just married her partner, Maretta Miranda. She was also one of the attorneys who argued the case before the appeals court.

Radbord expects Martin Cauchon, Canada’s minister of justice, to make an announcement soon about a potential appeal, but she is hopeful the decision will be left standing.

“It looks like the government is not going to appeal the decision,” Radbord said. “When we were arguing the case, one of the federal government lawyers said it would be the last time they were going to argue it.”

The issue of gay marriages has already been litigated in several Canadian provinces, with mixed results. Prime Minister Jean Chretien is stepping down soon. According to Radbord, Paul Martin, one of the leading contenders for Chretien’s position, has stated, “If [the gay litigants] were successful before the Ontario Court of Appeal, that should be the end of the legislation.”

Radbord added that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance John Manley, another front-runner to become prime minister, said that marriage for same-sex couples is acceptable to most Canadians.

Conservatives, however, have expressed their unhappiness with the decision. They have expressed interest in seeking to overturn Tuesday’s decision.

“Should Parliament or the courts be deciding this?” asked Peter Jervis, a constitutional lawyer who is representing a multi-faith coalition that opposes the decision. “That’s why it’s an interesting issue.”

Jervis’ clients include the nation’s Roman Catholic Bishops (the largest religious organization in the country), the Islamic Society of North America, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (including 40 denominations), the Ontario Council of Sikhs and the Catholic Human Rights League.

“I’m not surprised at the finding that this was discriminatory,” Jervis said. “They’ve taken a radical approach. They said ‘We’re going to decide this ourselves. We’re not going to give the Parliament the chance to decide this.’”

Jervis said he questions whether Parliament should be in the business of defining gay marriage.

“A further complication is that the government is defining a social institution,” Jervis said. “It’s happened in Vermont. Is that the right approach?”

trong>‘Comity’ for U.S. couples?
Stateside, Wolfson said the decision can only help gay men and lesbians here because the Ontario court ruled that discrimination is very clear in this context — and the remedy is very simple.

Although gay marriage lacks legal recognition in the United States, the decision will be a catalyst for change, said Wolfson. Vermont is the only state that recognizes civil unions, yet it is still outside the realm of the full rights and responsibilities of legal marriage.

“The exclusion from marriage infringes on human dignity, harms real families, and benefits no one,” Wolfson said. Legal challenges are ongoing in Hawaii, ...