QUEBEC OKAYS HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE IN ALL BUT NAME

QUEBEC, June 10, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Quebec gave legal status to homosexual “civil unions” on Friday, including equivalency of access to adoption and artificial insemination.  Paul Begin, Quebec’s attorney general, said the province stopped short of redefining the term “marriage,” but conferred “equality” in terms of health and insurance benefits, tax status and rights after divorce or death.  News agencies noted the irony that this occurred in the “once staunchly conservative province strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic Church”—but failed to note that it is a logical step in the self-destructive Quiet Revolution that has disfigured much of the province’s unique culture.  Marriage now retains one distinction in Quebec, for now: the minimum age for civil unions of both same-sex and heterosexual couples will be 18, while the minimum age for heterosexual marriage is 16. However, this is an obvious invitation to lawyers to push for “equality,” and will probably not survive a court challenge.  For Reuters coverage see: https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020607/wl_canada_nm/canada_life_gays_col_1