No Place in the Chapels of the Nation: How One Toronto Pastor Used An Ancient Tradition to Legalize Gay Marriage in Canada

On January 14th, 2001, 25 years ago today, two couples got married and made history. They were both gay. There had been other gay marriages before, but these were different. These were legal, before gay marriage was officially recognized. They sparked a media sensation that would lead to the legalization of gay marriage across Canada and legal rights internationally. Through creative legal loopholes and an unwillingness to backdown from a fight, the gay community achieved something great.
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Despite this being about two marriages, this is not a story about love. Often, gay marriage is celebrated as “love wins” or some other celebration of affection. But this is not that. This is a history of activists finding ways to challenge the status quo and not being satisfied with partial victories. It is about the queer community not waiting for a benevolent government to give them their rights but instead forcing their hand. These two marriages would have international ramifications.

​Our story begins a month earlier, in December 2000. Reverend Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto is attending a party. The MCCT, with its evangelical roots, has served Toronto’s queer community for decades, with Rev. Hawkes as its pastor for much of that time. Although not as radical as groups like The Body Politic, Hawkes has always been a major presence for queer activism in the city. Despite this, he is not averse to civil disobedience, such as his hunger strike in response to the 1981 bathhouse raids. “It takes negotiators and protestors to win rights,” he is recorded saying in December, 2000.

Reverend Brent Hawkes on the evening of February 6th, 1981 after the Bathhouse Raids. Photo taken by Charlie Dobie, https://onthebookshelves.com/raids.htm

​At this party in early December, a law professor from Queen’s University suggests he take a different tactic for performing gay marriages; reading the banns. An ancient Christian tradition dating back to Charlamagne, reading the banns involved reading out the names of those getting married and seeking any legal objections to the marriage. The Ontario Marriage Act allowed for churches to read the banns, but it said nothing about the genders of the couple. According to the Act, as long as there were no objections to the marriage, any two people could be married without needing a marriage certificate from the Province. Importantly, it wasn’t just any objections, they had to specifically be if one partner was under the legal age, had been married previously without obtaining a divorce, or if the two are related. Homophobic objections did not count. After those three weeks, the marriage could go through and the pastor could provide a marriage license. In this way, reading the banns offered a legal loophole to provide gay couples full, legal marriages.
 
Rev. Hawkes liked the idea, and he quickly found two couples, Anne and Elaine Vautour and Joe Varnell and Kevin Bourassa. Even before he starts reading the banns, it is in the newspapers. He announced his plan to the church on Dec 3rd, and by Dec 7th, there had already been multiple stories in the Toronto Star. On the 12th, two days after Rev. Hawkes read the banns for the first time, the Ontario government announced that it will not recognize the marriages. It has become front page news. Discourse abounds, with editorials waxing rhetorically both for and against. It becomes a sensation. This, of course, was Rev. Hawkes’ goal. It was intended to force the government’s hand and to recognize gay couples.
 
By the end of December, the date is set; January 14th, 2001. 
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The wedding in progress, with the media photographers gleefully documenting the day. Photo taken by the Toronto Star.

​On that day, the church is packed. The Toronto Star would describe it as being “covered like a royal wedding.” Photographers and camera crews documented the vows while a handful of protestors gathered across the street. Even Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s head of state, wishes the couples well. Canada has its first official gay marriage.

The state has no place in the chapels of the nation.

But it isn’t fully legal yet. The Province of Ontario had already stated they would not recognize the marriages. But Rev. Hawkes still sent the marriage license to be recognized. When it was rejected, that’s where the fight began. Despite the rejection, Rev. Hawkes was very clear. It did not change or affect the couples – they were still legally married. ​

On Jan 20th, the MCCT filed a lawsuit with the Registrar General of Ontario. In it, the church claimed that the Charter rights of both the couples and the Church were being infringed. In rejecting the marriages, the couples were being sexually discriminated against, and the Church was being denied its religious freedoms.
 
The case would be heard, and the couples won. But not entirely. In the initial victory saw no immediate changes. Their rights were infringed, but it gave a few years for the governments to rectify their laws. This was not sufficient for Rev. Hawkes, who appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeals.
 
On June 10th, 2003, the Ontario Court of Appeals gave their ruling. In a unanimous decision, they found that the Charter rights were being infringed, but this time, it stuck. They declared that existing marriage laws were in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman was immediately struck down.
 
As of that moment, gay marriage was legal in Ontario. The first jurisdiction in North America to recognize same-sex marriage.
 
Ontario would not remain the sole jurisdiction, however. Across the country, gay activists and gay friendly churches saw what Rev. Hawkes was doing and decided to do the same. British Colombia would be the first to join Ontario in July of the same year. Other provinces would follow suit in 2004 and by 2005, the Federal government passed the Civil Marriage Act, bringing gay marriage to the rest of the country.

With gay marriage legal in Ontario and later the rest of Canada, Toronto became a hub for queer weddings. Canada did not require either party to be Canadian in order to get married, and so many queer couples would fly into Toronto for the sole purpose of taking their vows. It was here, in 2007, that Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer got married. Following Spyer’s death in 2009, Windsor would take the U.S. government to the Supreme Court. The result saw the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act overturned. It was only possible because of activists like Rev. Hawkes who decided that they would get involved and create change.

In 2014, as part of World Pride, Toronto's Casa Loma became the site of 110 gay marriages. Photo taken by Jenna Marie Wakani for Toronto Life.

Gay marriage in Canada is the product of activists deciding they are not going to settle. And yet, this is not the way that it gets officially told. On the Canadian Encyclopedia entry for same sex marriage, Rev. Hawkes’ name is no where to be found. Instead, it is a top down history, a list of dates when it became legal. No mention of the activists who fought to make it that way. It is something that Canada will celebrate, twenty five years of gay marriage, but we choose to ignore that it was not given willingly. As important as it is to celebrate the love and joy of marriage, it is equally important to give credit to those that made it possible. So many of our rights in Canada and around the world are the product of small fights that end up being forgotten. The court cases that force the government’s hand, they play second fiddle to the governments that attempt to take credit for their progressivism.
 
We must not forget the work of the activists that got us where we are today. Their determination and sacrifice are deserving of our celebration as well. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
 
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Bibliography
 
Black, Debra. “Two Gay Couples Make History.” Toronto Star, January 15, 2001.
Brennan, Richard and Nicholas Keung. “Ontario Won’t Allow Same-Sex Weddings.” Toronto Star, December 12, 2000.
Chung, Andrew. “Suit Launched Over Gay Marriages.” Toronto Star, January 20, 2001.
Scrivener, Leslie. “Gay Pastor ‘Called to Lead People To Freedom’.” Toronto Star, December 17, 2000.
Lorinc, John. “From Banns to DOMA.” In Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer, ed. by Stephanie Chambers et al. (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2017. 309-310.
“Test of Marriage is Commitment.” Toronto Star, December 7, 2000.
Wilkes, Jim. “Gay Nuptials Plan Popular.” Toronto Star, December 6, 2000.
Wilkes, Jim. “Two Protest Gay Marriages.” Toronto Star, December 18, 2000.