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Losing the Feminist Voice? Debates on The Legal Recognition of Same Sex Partnerships in Canada

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Abstract

Over the last decade, legal recognition of same-sex relationships in Canada has accelerated. By and large, same-sex cohabitants are now recognised in the same manner as opposite-sex cohabitants, and same-sex marriage was legalised in 2005. Without diminishing the struggle that lesbians and gay men have endured to secure this somewhat revolutionary legal recognition, this article troubles its narrative of progress. In particular, we investigate the terms on which recent legal struggles have advanced, as well as the ways in which resistance to the legal recognition has been expressed and dealt with. We argue that to the extent that feminist critiques of marriage, familial ideology, and the privatisation of economic responsibility are marginalised, conservative and heteronormative discourses on marriage and family are reinforced. Our case studies include two pivotal moments in the quest for legislative recognition of same-sex relationships: the Hearings of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Bill C-23, The Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act, in 2000 and the hearings on Same-Sex Marriage in 2003. We find that the debates operated within a narrow paradigm that bolstered many existing hierarchies and exacerbated conditions for those who are economically disadvantaged.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding support and to Cindy Baldassi, Fiona Kelly, Rachel McVean and Maia Tsurumi for research assistance. A longer version of this paper will appear as a chapter in D. Chunn, S. Boyd and H. Lessard, eds., Feminism, Law and Social Change: (Re)Action and Resistance (Vancouver: UBC Press, forthcoming).

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, 1822 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada

    Claire Young & Susan Boyd

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  1. Claire Young
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Correspondence to Claire Young.

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Young, C., Boyd, S. Losing the Feminist Voice? Debates on The Legal Recognition of Same Sex Partnerships in Canada. Feminist Legal Stud 14, 213–240 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-006-9028-8

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