Jacob Birth
Special to The Interim
Hey, I’m not a redneck or a fascist!
I don’t live in the 1950s or suffer from homophobia or
casually deny others their rights!
I have gay friends, wore pink to my Grade 8 graduation,
but still don’t get Queer Eye.
I believe marriage is religious, not civil.
I believe the law came to regulate marriage by adopting it, not creating it.
I believe that marriage is about sex, not sexual orientation.
I believe He created them Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Marriage is about opposites attracting.
Love whom you want,
but all attractions do not qualify as marriage.
I believe that innovation belongs to the market and to industry,
but not the family.
I believe our other “bright ideas” about the family,
“divorce-on-demand and common law marriage,”
have proven to enrage children and impoverish women.
I believe that democracy is better than judicial oligarchy.
I believe in free votes, not party discipline;
referenda, not notwithstanding clauses.
I believe that for most Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh
believers to agree, there must be something to their case.
I believe that Christians should speak to cultural issues.
I believe that loyalty to the Crown, not one’s opinion on homosexuality,
should be the litmus test for citizenship, Prime Minister Martin.
And, I believe that churches should have a voice on marriage, Minister Pettigrew,
if only because we perform 75 per cent of them.
I believe that Canada and her children would be better off
if they devoted as much to discussing
the marriage as to the wedding.
I believe in elections where the issues are on the table,
not tabled to the courts.
I believe Canada discriminates all the time.
Teenagers can’t get CPP.
Nuns can’t get the Child Tax Benefit.
Why? Because they simply
do not fit the category.
Canada is my home and native land.
Homosexuals should never be denied their basic human rights.
But, by definition, even the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
agrees marriage isn’t one of them.
My name is Jake.
And even though I am against same-sex marriage,
I am still Canadian.
