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Marriage license online reservations
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Adovcacy News - It starts with one February 13, 2004 (updated Feb. 14) It
starts with one "Denying
basic rights to members of our community will not be tolerated." "It
felt like it was too big for words. It's too big. It's really big." San Francisco took a bold step forward for justice yesterday at 11:00 a.m. when county assessor Mabel Teng solemnized the marriage between Phyllis Marin and Del Lyons. The long-time activists have been together for 51 years. Mayor Gavin Newsom had previously announced his intention to open marriage to same-sex couples, making the City and County of San Francisco the first government in the United States to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Similar statements were made when our marriage was solemnized by the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, in January 2001. Through the Christian practice of reading bannns, we were able to avoid the marriage license process (one wasn't required when using the banns process). We were issued a government record of marriage, but our marriage wasn't registered until 2003, after the Court of Appeal for Ontario declared our marriage to be legal and ordered the province to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Justice will be served. In
the meantime, the couples can be sure that their marriages will be recognized
elsewhere, in Ontario and British Columbia, the Netherlands, and Belgium, where
freedom and equality are respected and honored. There is nothing preventing other cities elsewhere in Canada from doing the same. Unlike the United States, the common law definition of marriage was changed to "two persons" for all Canadians on June 10, 2021 (provinces are waiting for the common law definition to become Parliamentary legislation). So why not in Winnipeg or Montreal where equal marriage is still not available? In the absence of leadership from the top, it may be how Canadians and American's will be able to claim their civil rights without further delay and interference. "It is in the highest order of civic responsibility when you see a law that does not treat your citizens equally," marriage witness Kate Kendell told the NY Times, "to make a stand."
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