When did canada legalise gay marriage
Home / identity relationships / When did canada legalise gay marriage
One year later, the first Pride march was held. British Columbia was next (July 8, 2003), followed by Quebec (March 19, 2004), Yukon (July 14, 2004), Manitoba (September 16, 2004), Nova Scotia (September 24, 2004), Saskatchewan (November 5, 2004), Newfoundland and Labrador (December 21, 2004), and New Brunswick (June 23, 2005).
By mid-2005, only Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories had not legalized same-sex marriage.
By then, the federal government was willing to step in.
They believe that the legal recognition of multi-parent families could lead to greater social recognition of these families.
The Superior Court gave the Quebec government one year to change the law. A turning point came in 1995 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Egan v. Just four years later, 64% of Liberal MPs voted this way.
It reminds us that progress is possible and that preserving and learning from our history helps ensure we don’t leave anyone behind.
At the Canadian Pride Historical Society, we’re committed to sharing these stories, uplifting the voices that helped shape them, and protecting Canada’s rich and complex 2SLGBTQIA+ history.
This July 20, take a moment to celebrate Canada’s commitment to equality and consider how we can keep building on it.
July 20, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada.
No vote on the definition of marriage has been held since.
Table 1: Number of MPs in favour (yes) and opposed (no) to legalizing same-sex marriage
| Liberals | Conservatives | NDP | Bloc Quebecois | |||||
| Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| 1999 | 10 | 132 | 5 | 67 | 15 | 3 | 25 | 13 |
| 2003 | 96 | 54 | 5 | 75 | 12 | 0 | 22 | 5 |
| 2005 | 95 | 32 | 3 | 93 | 17 | 1 | 43 | 5 |
| 2006 | 85 | 13 | 13 | 110 | 29 | 0 | 47 | 0 |
The first time Parliament voted on retaining the traditional definition of marriage, there were MPs in every party – Conservative, Liberal, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois – that opposed redefining marriage, though each had a clear majority position on the issue.
Yes, it took us 10 years to get to this point, but I think this is something that is a beacon for people around the world who are looking at equality rights. not making it a crime to have multiple spouses) and 25% favour legalizing polygamy (i.e. If more than two people can be the parents of a child, why couldn’t more than two people be married to each other?
Twenty years removed from the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada, it seems far more likely that the erosion of God’s creational pattern for marriage will continue than that a traditional definition of marriage will be restored in Canadian law.
While our society may twist and pervert love and marriage, God still calls many of His children to a marriage that reflects the relationship between Christ and His Church. In many cases, they latch on to the law for moral direction.
Further decline
The societal recognition of marriage as “the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others” has crumbled.
Many Pride celebrations take place in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, which began on June 28, 1969, after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. That’s why God explicitly outlaws same-sex activity in the Mosaic law (Leviticus 20:13). Hodges) was a major moment in global LGBTQ+ history, and it’s often recognized as a symbolic date for marriage equality.
But here in Canada, we have our own milestone worth celebrating.
On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world – and the first outside Europe – to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
This is now widely considered the first-ever Pride parade.
1969 – Same-sex relationships are partially decriminalized
Before 1969, same-sex sexual activity was a crime in Canada. After legalization, support for same-sex marriage surged, standing at about 80% in 2023.
Just as “what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6), so also what God has instituted, let not man redefine.
God knew the fall into sin would lead to humanity trying to redefine God’s created norms. In 2005, when the Liberal government introduced its legislation to legalize same-sex marriage, it passed 158-133. That bill redefined marriage as “the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others.”
With the passage of this bill and its royal assent on July 20, 2005, same-sex marriage became legal across Canada, making Canada the fourth country in the world (after the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain) to recognize same-sex marriage.
Multi-parent families are families where a child has more than two legal parents.