The impact of the first legally recognized same-sex marriages in Ontario

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This is a CBC podcast. Good afternoon. I'm Amanda Pfeffer. This is the province's open line show, Ontario Today. This hour, the 25th anniversary of a same-sex marriage ceremony that changed the law across the country. By virtue of the power vested in me by the Ontario Marriage Act, I hereby

declare them to be lawfully married, joined together spouse to spouse, partners in life. Today, how did the legalization of same-sex marriage change your love story? 1-888-817-8995. A controversial event because the wedding involved two men and two women joined together as same-sex couples.

With the exchange of vows, Elaine Rotor and Anne Rotor, Kevin Guarassa and Joe Rarnel were married. The newlyweds have also embarked on a legal journey to have their marriages recognized by the province.

In January 2001, two couples got married at the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto. The church in consultation with lawyers used a legal loophole in the provincial law to do it. The couples were married according to an ancient Christian tradition called the publication of the bans.

The law says if the bans are read three times in a church, as they were over the past month, we let our lives together. We wrote our lives together. A wedding is considered legal.

The next step after the wedding was to send off the legal papers to Thunder Bay to be registered. But even before the ceremony began, the Ontario government warned it would not recognize the marriages. At a news conference, the pastor, Brent Hawks, said they'd fight. Yes, it's not registered. Then we'll go to court.

The church will take the province of Ontario to court. And so they did. It led to a unanimous court decision favouring the couples and by 2003 the Ontario government changed the law, becoming the first province and the first jurisdiction in North America

to legalise same-sex marriage. The federal government made legalization national by 2005. Since then, close to 100,000 same-sex couples have gotten married in Canada. And this week, the Mayor of Toronto gave the keys to the city, to faith leaders,

who began holding same-sex marriages in those early days. Today, we want to know how the move to legalize same-sex marriage changed your own love story. Call us this hour 1-888-817-8995.

And so to honor those faith leaders who fought tirelessly for marriage equality and for those faith leaders who continue to advocate, I as mayor of Toronto present to you the key to the city of Toronto. Yes.

This is the key to the faith leaders for marriage equality. It is the highest honor that a city of Toronto can be stole upon a person or a group of people that stood for love, stood for marriage equality, and had the courageous action to make it happen.

Mayor Olivia Chow this week, she was again handing out those keys to the city. We're talking about the first legal same-sex unions in Canada.

they celebrate 25 years today. How did that story, that love story, change your love story? That's our question today. Our number is 1-888-817-8995.

One of the people at the city event is our guest this hour, Reverend Dina Dudley. She is a pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto.

Since 2003, she has officiated same-sex unions for dozens of couples. this week she again as I say and other officiants received the keys to the city of Toronto

at that Pride ceremony. Welcome to Ontario today, Reverend Dina. Thank you, it's good to be with you. Yeah, you came to Canada from the United States

and you say the movement to legalize same-sex marriage was actually part of the pitch from your partner to come. Can you share that story? Sure. I first met my first wife, Anne, at a church conference in 1999. And once I finished

seminary and finished my first pastorate, she said to me, would you consider pastoring a church in Canada? Because I think in a few years we can get legally married there. And I thought, yeah, right. But she was right. And she was right because of what had happened at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto in 2001, the story that you've told of those first,

world's first legal same-sex marriages. And she actually had attended that and was one of the people cheering when they were pronounced legally married. And so shortly after the Ontario Court decision, here in Ontario, we were married as well. And when we sent out our invitations, we invited people to come and celebrate the joy and the justice of our wedding.

And you went on to officiate for a number of same-sex marriages during that period. It's one of the reasons why you received this honor from the city. Can you tell me about those early days, those early marriages, what they were like? They were incredibly joyful.

We, myself and other MCC ministers and other faith leaders in affirming denominations did an awful lot of weddings and you know some of them were people who'd been together a few years. Some of them were for people who had been together for decades and had never dreamed that they would be able to marry legally and there were a lot of tears of joy shed at those weddings.

We see that there's people who want to talk to us about how it affected their own relationships and their own love story, you would come from the United States and you mentioned that you had done a number of these marriages beginning in 2003, still sort of during this before the legislation passed of course. And I understand that you actually officiated a marriage

of your own pastoral mentor from the United States. Can you tell me about the Americans who came?