Census: Here come the brides: Same-sex marriages soar in Canada

via: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/

Kevin Bourassa (L) and his partner Joe Varnell are congratulated by Reverend Brent Hawkes (R) during their wedding ceremony in a Toronto church January 14, 2001. The men were one of two gay couples married in a ceremony at Toronto's Metropolitan Community Church. Both couples were issued marriage licenses believed to be first ever in Canada. The Ontario Provincial government has vowed not to register the marriages. REUTERS/Andy Clark

Seven years after Canada legalized same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian couples are running to the altar.

Between 2006 and 2011, the number of same-sex married couples nearly tripled, according to new census data released Wednesday.

While the number of opposite-sex couples who took the leap into matrimony grew by only three per cent since the last census, the number of same-sex couples tying the knot jumped by 181 per cent over the same period, from about 7,500 in 2006 to 21,000 in 2011.

Same-sex unions make up only 0.8 per cent of all couples of Canada, but they are the fastest-growing group of married couples, up 42 per cent from 2006.

The 2006 census followed on the heels of Canada’s Civil Marriage Act, which legalized same-sex marriage across the country in July 2005. Some provincial and territorial courts had already ruled that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, beginning with Ontario and British Columbia in 2003. This may explain the higher number of same-sex marriages in those two provinces as of 2011 — 8,370 in Ontario, and 3,445 in B.C. — along with Quebec, with 3,655 couples.

In 2006, only 16 per cent of same-sex couples had married. By 2011, the share had jumped to 32 per cent.

Canada’s biggest cities boasted the highest numbers of same-sex couples with 45 per cent living in Toronto (19 per cent), Montreal (16 per cent) or Vancouver (10 per cent).

While Ontario was home to, by far, the most married same-sex couples in both 2006 and 2011, the biggest jump in those five years was seen in Alberta. In 2006, only 510 Albertan same-sex couples had married, but by 2011, over 3,000 couples had exchanged vows, a five-fold increase, most of whom live in Calgary and Edmonton.

“It validates things,” said Marlow Lange, who married her longtime partner, Jill, in a traditional ceremony at the Art Gallery in Edmonton. “We knew we wanted a family and making it official was really important to us,” she said. The couple has a newborn son, Kade.

Same-sex couples — both married and common-law — were younger than opposite-sex couples. One quarter of same-sex couples were age 15 to 34 compared to 17 per cent of male-female relationships in the same age group. On the other end of the age spectrum, only six per cent of same-sex partners were 65 and over, compared to almost 18 per cent of opposite-sex couples.

Lange said that trend rings true in her experience. She said some of the couple’s friends who have been in committed same-sex relationships for many years didn’t opt to marry when the law changed in 2005. “To them, it wasn’t an option ever, so they just haven’t thought of it as something that they would do in their future – whereas for us, it’s always been there.”

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/