Summer of Love

News Item, June 27, 2005: Canadian Parliament approves same-sex marriage 158-133. Gay marriage had already been recognized in 8 provinces and 1 territory via judicial decisions, but this was the first time that a Canadian legislature had acted. The bill will become final when the upper house concurs (considered a formality.) "It's about the right to love," Réal Ménard, a Bloc Québécois lawmaker who is gay, said after the vote. "When you are in love, things are different, and everyone is entitled to that."

Meanwhile, the Spanish lower house also passed a bill last month to legalize gay marriage and permit gays and lesbians to adopt children, and the bill will become final when their upper house concurs next week (considered very likely). So in a matter of weeks, Canada and Spain will join Belgium and the Netherlands in granting gay and lesbian relationships the same legal status with which they celebrate traditional relationships.

Finally, last week, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., along with a large number of bipartisan co-sponsors from both chambers, introduced the "Uniting American Families Act" to treat same-sex couples the same as opposite-sex couples for the purposes of immigration.

Let freedom ring!