Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Well, one of us has a mistaken recollection of those days. I very distinctly remember being among only a small minority who was supportive of legalizing gay marriage (at least among those members who were actively posting in threads related to that topic; there very well might have been a pro-marriage "silent majority" who just didn't participate in threads about gay marriage). Unfortunately, I think the old database was wiped during a forum upgrade years ago, so there's no way to verify what the prevailing attitude was at the time.
I think CP's historical opposition to gay marriage can at least be partially attributed to partisan tribalism. Harper and the CPC are the "home team" when it comes to federal politics here, so many people toed the party line and repeated Conservative talking points against marriage equality.
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Here is a thread from 2004:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...light=Marriage
My observations are that the argument has those from both sides - and you are correct that more people are in favor of applying the term civil union. However, there is overall a really small number of folks participating in the debate (2 page thread?).
A thread a little later that year:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...light=Marriage
The lean appears to be in favor of gay marriage.
Also from 2004:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...light=Marriage
And later
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...light=Marriage
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...light=Marriage
Didn't go through all the threads but it is interesting to see how the collective mindset has evolved. I would however object that CP ever had an historical opposition to gay marriage. Certainly we've always had very loud and very vocal folks that have opposed gay marriage - but for the most part those folks aren't around any longer (though others always come along). But overall, it seemed like most of the community couldn't find a good reason for two gay people not to be allowed to marry.