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Canada's changing
family
BRODIE FENLON,
globeandmail.com from the Web, September 12, 2007
TORONTO — The redefinition of
family continues apace in Canada, with the latest household figures from the
2006 census showing a significant increase in the number of same-sex couples and
a first-ever count of same-sex marriages.
At the same time, there are more common-law families, more childless couples,
more people living alone and a greater number of single-parent households in
Canada than ever before.
The census counted 45,345 same-sex couples, up 32 per cent from 2001,
representing 0.6 per cent of all couples in Canada. Not surprisingly, half
of these couples lived in the three largest census metropolitan areas:
Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Statistics Canada allowed census respondents for the first time to indicate if
they were in a same-sex marriage. A total of 7,465 couples said they were.
About nine per cent of Canadians in a same-sex relationship had children under
24 years old living in the home.
The census also found:
• There were 6,105,910 married-couple families, an increase of only 3.5 per cent
from 2001, accounting for 68.8 per cent of all census families.
• In contrast, the number of common-law-couple families surged 18.9 per cent to
1,376,865, or 15.5 per cent of all census families. Only two decades ago,
that proportion stood at 7.2 per cent.
• The number of lone-parent families increased 7.8 per cent to 1,414,060.
• The number of one-person households increased 11.8 per cent, more than twice
as fast as the 5.3 per cent increase for the total population in private
households.
• The number of households consisting of couples without children aged 24 years
and under increased 11.2 per cent from 2001.
Although the increase in same-sex couples is significant, it was not unexpected.
Under-reporting is common on first-time census questions: The number of
same-sex couples identified by the Australian census doubled from 1996 to 2001;
the United States saw an increase of 300 per cent from 1990 to 2000.
Moreover, Canada has seen broad policy changes on same-sex couple rights and
entitlements since the last census.
Adoption, pension benefits, child-care tax breaks and a host of other rights
were awarded to gay and lesbian couples in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in
July, 2005, after several provincial courts ruled that the government's
definition of marriage –- the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all
others -– was unconstitutional.
Experts say these policy changes and greater societal tolerance made it easier
for same-sex couples to self identify on the 2006 census.
“Two things are happening,” said David Rayside, director of the Mark S. Bonham
Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at University of Toronto.
“As public acceptance slowly increases for ... the recognition of homosexuality
in general, and for same-sex couples in particular, there are more people in a
broader range of communities who can actually imagine living together,” he said.
“But also, there is an increase in the proportion of people who are prepared to
say that they are living together in a conjugal relationship.”
The census appears to skew low on the number of same-sex marriages.
According to Canadians for Equal Marriage, 12,438 marriage licences had been
issued to same-sex couples by the end of summer 2006, based on provincial data
and estimates.
Some critics attribute the discrepancy to the way the census question was asked.
Couples were instructed to check the “Other” category at the bottom of a list of
relationships, rather than the box marked “Husband or wife.”
“The census, we believe, made an error and they were unfair to married same-sex
couples,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, a gay rights
advocacy group that organized a petition last year and urged couples to ignore
the “Other” box.
Michael Leshner, one of the first Canadians to legally marry his same-sex
partner, Michael Stark, in a June, 2003, civil ceremony, said it will be many
years before the census accurately reflects the totality of gay and lesbian
families.
“A lot of people do not feel comfortable, still, coming out on official
government sites for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Leshner said. “Social
change, even within the gay and lesbian movement, takes a long, long time.”
Still, Mr. Stark said the early results are encouraging for he and his husband,
who spent many years fighting for the same rights as heterosexual couples and
who, only four years ago, were among just a handful of same-sex couples in the
entire country.
“There's a certain satisfaction knowing people are taking advantage of that
right to get married,” he said.
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