So on the day that we find out that Willard Mitt Romney quietly funneled some generous cash to the National Organization for Marriage in 2008 — which is not really a surprise, considering how strongly the Mormon Church worked to kill marriage equality in California that year — we cats are struck by a paradox. Specifically, one from the former British Empire.
On the one hand, there's Tory Prime Minister David Cameron kicking up a rumpus by championing gay marriage in the U.K. Whether or not he's trying to deflect attention from his government's involvement in Murdochgate, we can't tell. But we find it interesting that he positions it as an endorsement of family values. "I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative," says he. "I support gay marriage because I'm a Conservative."
Not noted in the Washington Post article about the Cameron kerfuffle is the fact that seven years ago, a key member of the British Commonwealth — Canada — quietly legalized marriage equality nationwide. Yes, it started under a Liberal government, not a Conservative one. But after Ontario became the first province to institute same-sex marriage in 2003, the other provinces followed suit in only two short years. It was amazingly swift, and amazingly — like all other things in Canada — low-key.
From our anecdotal observations in Montreal, we cats can testify that heterosexual marriage has suffered absolutely no damage from this calm Canadian move to equality. (In fact, the opposite. How many new husbands and wives have we seen happily emerging from churches as we've biked by?) And even more tellingly, Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who came to power in 2006, has made no move to reverse the law. (Again, in fact, quite the opposite.)
So perhaps all those folks in Britain who are rending garments and gnashing teeth over gay marriage should dial up Tory Stevie in Ottawa for a dose of political reality.
That would be a good thing. But here in the good old U.S.A., we hold no hope for Willard Mitt Romney and the Mormon Church. Those folks, we fear, are beyond enlightenment. So we cats HISS.
(IMAGE: Get that cat away from Harper before he strangles it!)
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