September 12, 2007
Fit To Be Tied
Canada's first same-sex marriage was performed here, and according to 2006 census data released today, nearly a quarter of same-sex common law couples in Toronto have officially tied the knot. Strangely enough, hetero marriages haven't crumbled en masse since the unions became legal country-wide in 2005, nor have people started lobbying to marry their pets. Someone should tell the Americans.
This is the first time that the question was asked on a census, with 7,465 gay couples reporting in as hitched. Advocacy group Egale Canada originally voiced concern with the way the question was presented since it allocated same-sex marriages to a write-in option under the "other" category. Egale would rather a single checkbox for all married people.
Most significant was the growth rate since 2001: the number of same-sex common law couples increased at five times the rate of opposite-sex relationships. Half of all reported same-sex couples lived in Toronto (21.2%), Montreal (18.4%), and Vancouver (10%). 9% of same-sex couples had children, and though it was much more common for females to have families with kids, the male pairings accounted for more than twice the rate of growth in this demographic. Gay couples with children were far more likely to get married than those without kids.
While Toronto saw the greatest percentage of married same-sex couples at nearly 1 in 4(!), only about 1 in 10 Montréal couples made it official—but this is likely on account of Québecers overall having much more of a propensity for common law unions. More than 44% of Canadian common law families live in Québec, and Montréal has Canada's highest concentration of same-sex couples at 1 in 97. C'est sensass!
Toronto's census data reports 9,620 same-sex couples, while Regina reports back with only 155. The census is only as accurate as the responses, however, and many people may not be likely to answer such a personal question honestly (under-reporting is also common when new questions are added to the census). More than 80% of the common law gay couples identifying as such in the census were concentrated in urban areas.
Photo by tysonwilliams from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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Forget telling the Americans; someone should tell Albertans.
I'm always amazed at single-issue voters, which is such a huge thing south of the border (and maybe in Alberta). Sure, there's a disastrous war going on, rampant American poverty, world genocides, no universal health care and a failure of the school system, but oh my God, two women want to get married! VOTE REPUBLICAN ONLY!
As for Canadians thinking the same way, this same census also continued to highlight our own poverty issues. The median income for single parent Canadian households was $30,000 annually, which means that half the single parent families make less than that and vastly more women live in poverty (more than 2.1 million kids live in a single parent household). Yet, the outrage is reserved for those marrying gays...
Actually, I was kinda surprised at the lack of significant negative reaction by Canadians when same-sex marriage became legal, considering how vitriolic the debate is south of the border.