Sunday, June 19, 2005
Rainbow Banner Comes to Ottawa!
Well... today was an extraordinary day here in Ottawa! There is a group of 5 youth from Calgary, Alberta who decided almost two years ago to create a giant pride rainbow banner. Their site gives lots of details on the project. What is so amazing about that you ask? Just let me tell you.
1. They conceived of the idea to create a 500 foot rainbow banner in support of same-sex marriage in Canada.
2. They got other congregations involved in making pieces of the banner to add on.
3. They live in CALGARY - which is the Texas of Canada (aka very conservative reputation).
4. They travelled with the banner to participate in many Unitarian congregations across Canada.
5. They came to our congregation this morning... and 25 of us got to carry the banner into our main church hall while everyone was singing! (Few dry eyes in the place I think.)
6. At least two hundred people (including me and Eric) took the banner to Parliament Hill this afternoon and participated in a rally to encourage our Prime Minister to finalize the bill for same sex marriage this week.
The rally this afternoon was great. There were representatives from many Unitarian churches from across Canada, as well as one from New York state. There were also spokespersons from the United Church, the Quaker church and the Anglican church. There was one politician and several youth speakers who did a great job.
For those of you who aren't Canadian - our Supreme Court has already stated that same-sex partners cannot be discriminated against in our country - and so several Provinces, including Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have passed legislation to allow it.
But some other Provinces (like Alberta, where these youth come from) have refused to pass similar legislation. Our Canadian government has been working on this legislation for three years... it is time to pass it. We are just all waiting and hoping that it may actually take place this week.
