First of all, as a formerly card-carrying Progressive Conservative, I can honestly tell you that not every member of the party believes in the policy of banning same-sex marriage. Those of us who are socially libertarian (“Red Tories” as we call ourselves) are just fine with the idea of allowing same-sex marriage, as well as homosexuality in general. There have even been a number of openly gay candidates in the last few elections, and we even had an openly gay MP.
Secondly, the argument that “marriage is only for procreation” doesn’t wash with me at all. There are plenty of heterosexual couples who get married and never have kids. Does anyone remember the DINKS yuppies of the '80’s who were so wrapped up in themselves that kids were out of the question? And what about all the people well beyond child-bearing age who get married simply because they want a little companionship? Are we saying that they should be denied the right to marry?
But getting back to the issue of the Conservative party being against same-sex marriage, it’s important to remember that a political party does not think with one mind. That would be like saying that all NDP members are for raising taxes on the rich or that all Liberals want to legalize marijuana.
But what DOES seperate the Conservatives from the other parties is that their leader has openly said that their leader realizes this. He has even gone so far as to say that he’ll allow a free vote on the matter should it come before Parliament. Not exactly the kind of thing that a hate-mongering homophobe would do, now is it?
