A brief list of major events. Current status.

2001-JAN-14: At this time, same-sex couples could not purchase marriage licenses from their province or territory. However, in much of Canada, there is a second path that leads to marriage. A minister, pastor, priest or other member of the clergy can perform a "reading of the banns" for three consecutive weeks announcing an upcoming marriage. This makes a couple eligible to be married in the congregation on the following week, without first having obtained a marriage license.

The banns were read in this way for two same-sex couples at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. They were:

• Kevin Bourassa to Joe Varnell, and
  
  
• Elaine Vautour to Anne Vautour.

Of course, when the pastor, Rev. Brent Hawkes. attempted to register their marriages, the government office refused. Thus the two marriages remained recognized only by the church in which it was performed.

2003-JUN-10: The definition of marriage in Ontario was widened by a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal. They ruled unanimously that same-sex couples of a suitable age can marry. SSM had finally achieved a foothold in one Canadian province. Ontario became the first political jurisdiction in North America to allow SSM. [Massachusetts was the second on 2004-MAY-17.] Two gays, Michael Stark and Michael Leshner anticipated the court ruling and had arranged in advance to obtain a marriage license, to have the usual waiting period waived, and be married almost immediately in Toronto City Hall. Both men had played a major role in the court case. ₆ Leaving the building, they and a few other newly married same-sex couples were met by demonstrators, including busloads of Americans with children, who vented their hostility and anger on the happy newlyweds.

As part of their ruling, the court also legalized same-sex marriages in Ontario that had been previously solemnized by a reading of the banns. And so the two same-sex couples who had been married at the Metropolitan Community Church in 2001 were "grandfathered," and declared to have been married retroactively to 2001. They are believed to have been the first same-sex couple to be married in the entire world during recent history. This was a few months before the Netherlands -- the first full country to legalize SSM -- started to marry same-sex couples.

2005-AUG: The Prince Edward Island government refused Dr. Chris Zarow and Constance Majeau's request for a marriage license. They were a same-sex couple from California, who wanted to marry during a family reunion in PEI on AUG-19. Faced with a lawsuit, someone in the government had a brilliant flash of insight and figured out how to handle a same-sex couple. Chris Zarow said she was pleased that:

"From now on any [same-sex] couple can walk into the Vital Statistics office and simply fill out the paperwork as simple as anyone else. No one else will have to fight this battle."

This wedding is symbolic for all of Canada. For the first time, any couple, opposite-sex or same-sex, could obtain a marriage license anywhere in Canada and have their marriage registered by the province or territory. _3,4 More info.

2013-JUN-10: Two gays, Mathieu Chantelois and Marcelo Gormez-Wiuckstern, who were the first same-sex couple in Canada to marry via a marriage certificate, celebrated their 10th anniversary together. By this time, same-sex marriages were available in twelve U.S. states and the District of Columbia as well as in about 14 other countries. SSM was being actively debated in Australia, in England and Wales in the UK, and in Scotland.

In contrast, same-gender sexual activity is still criminalized in 78 countries around the world. In six of those countries -- all predominately Muslim -- such behavior is a crime for which the penalty can be execution.