Gay Marriage

People holding these positions are performing legal responsibilities, just as a judge may do, a person providing a marriage license does and or issueing a drivers license.

BC Law forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and a result a marriage commissioner would violate the law if they did not preside over a same-sex marriage. This is a civil service, not a religious service.

The law is clear in BC. Same sex couples have the right to marry. If you are a marriage commissioner and you cannot perform the service for all those entitled to marry then you cannot be a marriage commissioner. The BC Govt and Minister Hawkins have acted appropriately and in the only way they possibly could have in reminding marriage commissioners of their responsibilities.

If you as a marriage commissioner disagree then you need to resign, just as the clerk that would refuse to sell a same sex couple a marriage license would need to do. It's the Law!

Rick

I think that they have to preside over marriage of two of the same sex. They are there to provide this legal service to the community. They are not there to perform a church wedding, this is a civil service. Open to all Canadians legaly able to marry. IN BC that includes same sex couples.

At noon Valentine's Day February 14th there will be a celebration of British Columbia equal-marriage rights at the fountain of the Victoria Conference Centre (behind the Empress, near the bus station). A recently married couple (and fathers of two sons) will speak of their decision, and the spiritual and political reasons for equal-marriage rights will be addressed in the 15-minute event. For more information contact J. McRee Elrod at mac@slc.bc.ca

I will post more information here when it is available. You can also check out http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/advocacy/february14_2004.htm#bc

Equal Marriage For Same-Sex Couples
http://equalmarriage.ca

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2010 Olympics minister confirms that he married his long-time partner in a
ceremony held last November
Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun
Monday, January 26, 2004
B.C. cabinet minister Ted Nebbeling confirmed Sunday that he has married his
long-time gay partner in what is believed to be the first same-sex marriage
of a cabinet minister anywhere in the world.
The minister of state for the community charter and the 2010 Olympics said
he married his partner of 32 years, Jan Holmberg, at a small ceremony at
their Coal Harbour apartment on Nov. 15, but had planned to keep it under
wraps until the legislature began sitting again in February.
"It was something that my partner and I really wanted to be for us,"
Nebbeling, 59, explained in an interview. "It was a very special day. We
invited some friends and swore them to secrecy until I was able to make it
public and share it more broadly."
Nebbeling, MLA for West Vancouver-Garibaldi, said he and Holmberg, 63,
decided to get married shortly after a B.C. court made same-sex marriage
legal in July 2003.
"When marriage between same-sex partners became legal in British Columbia,
we thought it was a great opportunity to renew our commitment together in a
wedding ceremony," Nebbeling said.
Nebbeling and Holmberg are both immigrants -- Nebbeling from the Netherlands
and Holmberg from Sweden.
Gay marriage has been legal in the Netherlands for several years, but
Nebbeling said he and Holmberg, a Whistler property manager, wanted to wait
until it was legal in Canada before tying the knot.
"I'm a Canadian. I'm very proud of being a Canadian and my partner is the
same way," Nebbeling said. "If I was going to get married, I wanted to get
married in my homeland -- and that's Canada."
Nebbeling is not the first elected official to have a same-sex marriage.
Toronto city Councillor Kyle Rae married his gay partner in June, after an
Ontario court made same-sex marriage legal there.
But Nebbeling is believed to be the most senior politician to have had a
same-sex ceremony.
Only eight close friends attended the wedding, Nebbeling said.
Over the past few months, he and Holmberg have held several parties to let
other friends know, and have flown back to Europe to tell relatives.
Nebbeling said he is glad the courts have decided to make same-sex marriage
legal.
"I think it was the right decision," he said. "Why should we not have that
opportunity to stand in front of a marriage commissioner and legalize that
bond that has been very strong for us?"
But Nebbeling said one of the reasons he and Holmberg didn't make the
marriage public before now is that it was a personal decision rather than a
political one.
"We did it because we thought it was meaningful," he said.
Before becoming an MLA in 1996, Nebbeling served as a mayor and city
councillor in Whistler.
While he said he has never hidden his homosexuality, he said he hasn't made
a big deal of it either.
Aside from the odd nasty letter, he said he's never been harassed for his
sexual orientation.
Nebbeling said he has braced himself for some nasty letters from those
opposed to same-sex marriage.
"Now that it has become public ... I suspect that we will get more negative
reaction," he said.
But he said he expects most British Columbians to be supportive.
A poll by Ipsos-Reid in June found 64 per cent of British Columbians
supported gays and lesbians having the right to marry.
Nebbeling and Holmberg met in Amsterdam and moved together to Whistler in
1977.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=B8DA9B42-133B-4701
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