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No Poly Right

Last week, Bill C-38 was debated again (it remains at second reading). Here's an unfortunate segment:

Mr. Réal Ménard (Hochelaga, BQ): [Translated] We heard the argument that recognizing the right of homosexual persons to marry would open the door to polygamy and polyandry, which would cause the disintegration of all marital relationships or committed relationships as part of a family.

I do not think that that is an honest argument because, frankly, is there one person who believes that the courts in B.C., Ontario, Quebec and elsewhere could have ruled that the lawmakers had to recognize same sex partners, had it not been for the right to equality?

The right to equality excludes polygamy and polyandry. Why? Because this concept that men could have more than one spouse is completely contrary to the right to equality. Women are considered to be so distinct that their relationships have to be legitimized, and using these as a mere bargaining chit within a broader type of relationship is completely contrary to the right to equality. I do not think that anyone in this House could find a court ruling or decision, in any way, shape or form, suggesting that the right to equality legitimizes polyandry and polygamy.

One objector to same-sex marriage brought forth this interesting statistic:

Hon. John McKay (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, Lib.): The Netherlands has had same sex marriage for the last five years. It should be noted that in the first three years of that bill, marriage declined among heterosexuals by 10% each and every year, and in the last year of 2004 it declined between 3% and 4%. There seem to be no other factors to explain this sudden drop in heterosexual attachment to the institution of marriage. Marriage is now dead in Denmark and 61% of children are born outside of marriage.

There's no reference to change in the rate of marriage before the same-sex marriage bill. However, some other sources provide more data:

Falling numbers of marriages and rising numbers of children born out of wedlock since 1990 supposedly confirm a serious crisis in marriage in the Netherlands that began as gay marriage was debated in Parliament. But these alarmist claims are based on the selective use of statistics. In fact, the annual number of marriages fluctuates. In their open letter, the Dutch scholars point to a decline from 95,000 marriages in 1990 to 82,000 in 2003. But one might just as well point to an increase over the past two decades from 78,000 in 1983 to 82,000 in 2003.

In fact, the propensity to get married declined steeply in the 1970s and early 1980s, but stabilized thereafter. The likelihood that a Dutch person would ever marry fell from nearly 100% round 1970 to about 60% around 1980, and has remained fairly stable since then. This demographic change obviously occurred long before the public discussion on same-sex marriage.

The Dutch have become more likely to have children before marrying, but that shift also started before gay couples got partnership or marriage rights. It's true that the non-marital birth rate rose from 11% in 1990 to 31% in 2003. However, a similar increase in non-marital births occurred in Ireland, Luxembourg, Hungary and Lithuania, all countries that do not give same-sex couples partnership or marriage rights. We obviously can't blame the rise in non-marital births in those countries on gay marriage, so why should we think that's what happened in the Netherlands?

Hansard, Again

Holy crap. My MP actually said something in debate (he's been called the most do-nothing MP in parliament). And he actually seems to have done a good job. ( Tony, oh Tony )