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Email: "MP Jason Kenney Angers Gay Parliamentarians But Also Supports Civil Unions"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com OTTAWA, February 15, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jason Kenney, the Conservative MP for Calgary Southeast has drawn the ire of homosexual activists in Parliament by emphasizing once again that marriage can only be the union of one man and one woman. This weekend, Kenney irritated the perennially irritable Libby Davies, NDP MP for Vancouver East, saying that gays are as free as anyone else to enter into marriage. “Marriage is open to everybody, as long as they’re a man and a woman,” said Kenney. Speaking to a Toronto area Punjabi language newspaper, Kenney said that Davies had been married to a man before changing her sexual orientation. Davies has made no secret of her relationship with a live-in female ‘partner.’ Davies’ responded that she was “outraged” that Kenney would mention her relationship. She accused Kenney of, “invoking my relationship and my name to put out political spin for his own political purpose, which is all about dividing a community.”Kenney’s position, however, far from being a source of ‘division’ reiterated what has been the norm, or at least the ideal, for most civilizations for all of history. A union between two men or two women, contends Kenney, cannot be a marriage properly speaking because of the nature of marriage itself. Kenney’s statements reflect, moreover, the opinion of a strong majority of Canadians. A recent reader poll by the National Post revealed that the pro-gay marriage policy of the NDP and Liberal Parties are out of sync with Canadian public opinion.Kenney later responded to Davies accusations saying on CTV’s Canada AM, “Basically, the court simply pointed out that the exclusive nature of heterosexual traditional marriage is based not on sexual orientation but on gender. And the reason for that is because only a man and a woman can transmit life.”On the same programme, however, Kenney appeared to depart from the moral teachings the Catholic faith by supporting civil unions as a supposed ‘reasonable compromise.’ The Alberta Conservative MP said his party supports domestic partner unions at the provincial level “which recognizes that there are non-conjugal relationships where people live in a dependent situation that deserves state recognition.”Although the pro-family Catholic MP notably did refer to “non-conjugal relationships” in his statement his and his party’s contradictory position is still causing a lot of head scratching, if not consternation, among pro-family Canadians. On the weekend Kenney said, “I don’t deny at all that gays and lesbians care for each other and love for each other, and indeed that should be considered in civil union relationships at the provincial level.”This position is in opposition to the recent teaching on the subject from the Catholic Church. The Vatican’s highest teaching office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote in June 2003, “In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty… If it is true that all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way.”Debate on the same sex ‘marriage’ bill is scheduled to begin in the Commons tomorrow and is expected to be long and acrimonious.For resources on understanding the objections to gay civil unions:http://www.lifesite.net/features/marriage_defence/...CanWest coverage:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNew...See alsoThe Conservative Party Position - Pro-Marriage or Not?http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05020112.htmlhw http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/mp-jason-kenney-angers-gay-parliamentarians-but-also-supports-civil-unions/

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