Mere hours after the House of Commons passed third reading of Bill C-38, a group of MLAs holds a huddle in Edmonton to figure out how to "get around" bill C-38. At the center of it all, we find MLA Ted "Firewall" Morton.
According to Mr. Morton:
Foothills-Rocky View MLA Ted Morton says if the province doesn't fight the legislation, homosexuality will creep into the mainstream and those that don't agree will be discriminated against.
"If gay marriage has full support of both federal and provincial law, it would be very difficult, for example, for a teacher at a high school or junior high to refuse to teach this as part of the curriculum that presents this as normal," Ted Morton said.
Once again the hysterical illogic comes bubbling to the surface - faster than Jed's Crude in the Beverly Hillbillies. Next, Mr. Morton will be spouting that there is a conspiracy of homosexuals to recruit your children. (Which is pure nonsense)
Lessee - basically Morton's all afraid that his right to marginalize a minority group because of his religious beliefs is going to be lost. I realize, and respect, the fact that a lot of religions have strong sanctions against homosexuality. That's fine and dandy - freedom of belief doesn't extend - in my view - to the right to treat other people as "lesser" members of society because you don't like their romantic attachments.
Claiming that something is a "moral choice" repeatedly doesn't make it so. I can argue that the sun revolves around the earth until I'm blue in the face - the fact is no matter how fervently I believe it, will not change the reality of the universe.
Even if Alberta were to cease issuing "marriage licenses", and only issued "civil union licenses" (or whatever they call them), it doesn't change the reality of same-gender marriages happening - whether the government wishes to admit it or not. There are same-gender couples that are as committed as any mixed-gender couple already out there; several churches - notably the United Church of Canada and the Unitarian Church of Canada have already stated a willingness to marry same-gender couples. So even in Mr. Morton's fantasy world, there will be same-gender couples.
Of course, in Alberta, minority rights have always required someone to drag the government through the court system. Whether it was Vriend who dragged the province through the courts to reaffirm his right _not_ to be fired because of his romantic preferences or granting of family treatment to same-gender families in the health system.
1 comment:
To summarize: he is worried that he has lost his right to discriminate against a minority group. This implies that he is assuming that he HAD the right to begin with! It doesn't bode well for our crop up in Edmonton.
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