Just Married: Gay Marriage and the Expansion of Human Rights

Sara Stratton, Ph.D., is the education network coordinator at FAIROS:
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.

As this review is being written, the authors’ account of their
marriage in January 2001 is both topical and already out of date. The
authors, members of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, are
one of two gay/lesbian couples who sought a legal marriage through the
public declaration of banns—an ancient religious tradition that is
upheld in Ontario law as a form of marriage licence. Though that
approach was subsequently refused recognition by the Ontario government,
in the summer of 2003 Bourassa and Varnell became the province’s (and
Canada’s) first legally married gay couple after an Ontario Court of
Appeal decision directed the federal government to change the definition
of marriage. Licences were issued in the province of Ontario, and
previous licences obtained through banns were to be recognized.

While the title of the book suggests that it examines human rights
legislation and advocacy as well as the authors’ own story, this is
not the case. The couple married first for love, and secondarily to make
a political point. Just Married is a personal history, a primary account
of one moment within an important human rights struggle. It is written
from the heart, not always deftly, but with flashes of humor and much
goodwill. For their pastor, Brent Hawkes, it was a political maneuver,
though clearly something he believed in as a matter of principle. The
distance between them at points is clear, particularly regarding media
coverage and Hawkes’s and the church’s tendency to change plans
without consulting the marrying parties.

This book is unlikely to have the impact that the events it describes
did, but it will remain an important primary source in the history of
gays and lesbians in Canada.