By Lyla Miller
Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell got married more than a year ago in an open ceremony in a Toronto church. Since then, they have been at the centre of a push to allow same-sex marriage.
The couple participated in a gay marriage event at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church on Elgin Street on Feb. 11 as part of a week-long gay and lesbian literature tour sponsored by the Lambda Foundation for Excellence. The event at the church came at a time when the congregation is looking into whether they should begin offering blessings to same-sex couples.
Bourassa says after the wedding the couple’s marriage certificate was never processed by the Ontario government. The couple took the province to court and won when a three-judge panel ruled on July 12 that it’s unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry because it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The federal government has appealed the ruling.
Liberal MP Andy Scott chairs a committee that is now holding hearings on the issue of same-sex marriage.
He told the congregation that while the emotion-laden hearings are difficult, “as a committee, collectively, the committee is growing. Not in numbers, but in their thinking. So I’m hopeful, frankly, and it changes from witness to witness, so I’m really hopeful.”
Gary Sealey, executive director of the Lambda Foundation, says St. John the Evangelist church was the perfect venue for this event because the Anglican church is in the midst of what it calls a “year of reflection” on whether to begin offering same-sex blessings.
The church has long been known as an activist church. Rev. Garth Bulmer was first to put the issue of offering same-sex blessings on the table at the Ottawa diocese.
“I think we see ourselves, and rightly so, as part of this rights movement,” Bulmer said.