It was good to see two stories intersect today: the president’s move to ban federal racial profiling in domestic policing and Canada’s decision to grant marriage rights to gays and straights alike. The reason they intersect is that they both affirm the same principle: that the government should treat its citizens as citizens, not as part of some ethnic or sexual group. The government should not treat blacks any differently than whites; and it should strain to treat gays exactly the same way as it treats straights. No special rights for anyone. Just equality under the civil law. Same principle again with regards to affirmative action. What, one wonders, has become of classical liberalism that this principle should still be so widely ignored or misunderstood?
AFTER CANADA, BRITAIN: The Canadian decision is indeed a watershed. I’m still elated about this breakthrough for civil equality. But it isn’t the end of the story. The Blair government is now accelerating plans for de facto marriage rights for gay citizens. They’re not calling it “marriage;” but the new unions will have exactly the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual marriage. Both Blair and Chretien are Christians, by the way. Like many other non-fundamentalists, they seem personally committed to extending governmental recognition of gay dignity and humanity. And until gay people are accorded civil recognition for their relationships, no such equal dignity can exist. How long will it take before this country – whose Constitution enshrines freedom and equality – follows suit? As the Canadian Justice Minister put it, “We’re talking about essential freedoms here.” Yes: an essential freedom. Some of us are still fighting for it.
The Dish 