Nunavut’s MP should support same-sex marriage

I wish I could say I was surprised, stunned, or even a little saddened to read of the call by Nanulik MLA Patterk Netser for Nunavummiut to “call [Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell], e-mail her, write her, everything to encourage her to vote against [legislation to legalize same-sex marriage]. It’s not right for our nation to do that.”

But I witnessed the run-up to the election of Nunavut’s current MLAs, and Netser’s opinion is in line with his campaign platform. I’m surprised only that Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley was beaten to the punch.

I could write a rant about the intolerance, discrimination, and even hate in Netser’s position. But that would be plainly obvious to most who agree with my position; and that my statements are possibly intolerant, discriminatory, and perhaps even a little hateful would seem clear to most who share Netser’s worldview.

To write that letter would work only to fan the flames of this tired debate. Instead I want to say to the people of Nunavut that homosexuality is not a threat. Having same-sex couples marry, and share the same benefits as their peers, is not going to create chaos.

And they truly are peers: working, learning, and living, despite the denial of some, alongside heterosexual individuals. Whether or not to allow our neighbours, our co-workers, our friends, to share the benefits and pitfalls of marriage should not be a question.

We, as a country, barely bat an eyelash as we allow streams of people from around the world to settle in Canada to, hopefully, start a full and rewarding life. We selflessly don’t think twice before donating funds to help disaster victims, like last month’s Indian Ocean tsunami survivors, so they will, hopefully, start anew the realization of their dreams.

Yet there are some in our country, Netser and Curley being the most vocal of Nunavummiut, who would like us to, shamefully, deny our fellow Canadians an otherwise taken-for-granted right that would, hopefully, allow them to start a full and rewarding life with the person they love, and to begin the realization of their dreams.

I would like to see my gay friends have the ability to embark on a journey I already set out on; if only in the hope that they can succeed, and find happiness, in a gay marriage where I failed in my, already legal, heterosexual marriage.

And failing that, to take “attempt-at-marriage” from the “difference” list, and leave “sexual orientation” as the only entry, because that really is the only difference between gay and straight people. Their gay marriages and divorces will affect you as much as my straight marriage and divorce has: not at all.

Finally, I would like to counter Patterk Netser’s call with my own.

Call, write, email, fax, or visit Nancy Karetak-Lindell, and urge her to vote in favour of the same-sex marriage legislation. It’s the right thing for our nation to do.

Mosha Folger
Ottawa