Gay B.C. cabinet minister marries partner after 32 years as couple

[Ediacara]

Monday, January 26, 2004 · Last updated 3:22 p.m. PT

B.C. cabinet minister marries partner after 32 years as couple

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VICTORIA, British Columbia -- Ted Nebbeling, the British Columbia government's cabinet minister in charge of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics, said Monday that he married his same-sex partner of 32 years in a quiet ceremony in Vancouver in November.

Nebbeling, 59, is British Columbia's minister of state for the community charter and the 2010 Winter Olympics, posts he has held since the B.C. Liberal Party formed its provincial government in May 2001. Before being elected to the B.C. legislature in 1996, he served two terms as mayor of Whistler, the ski resort town north of Vancouver that will host many Olympic events.

Nebbeling said he had planned to announce his marriage to property manager Jan Holmberg, 63, next month during the opening of the legislature, but news of the ceremony leaked out.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell offered best wishes to Nebbeling and Holmberg after the couple's Nov. 15 wedding, Nebbeling said.

More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

[displacedtexan]

1. That's great!

sending out best wishes vibes.

[Maeve]

2. Good for them!

See? Men really can make a commitment! :D

[Lisa]

3. admittedly this is kind of like 2 Log Cabin Republicans getting hitched

I'm a member of the opposition party in BC, but politics aside, send my best wishes to the happy couple!

I think it's a very good sign when support for same-sex marriage is evident across the political spectrum, and not just a one-party issue.

[Vadem]

4. 32 Years! My Goodness! What was he afraid of???

Silly question, I know! Thank goodness, he finally came out of the closet for his partner and may they both live happily ever after!

[iverglas]

5. and in other BC same-sex marriage news

I don't think this has been mentioned at DU:

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/01/21/marriage_commissioners040121

Perform same-sex marriages or resign, B.C. tells commissioners
Last Updated Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:07:51

VANCOUVER - British Columbia has ordered the province's marriage commissioners to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies or resign.

"Marriage commissioners" are the people you go to in BC if you want to get married by a "JP" -- people licensed by the province to perform marriages, who are not performing marriages as part of their duties within a religious denomination.

The B.C. Vital Statistics Agency, which appoints the commissioners who perform civil marriage ceremonies, sent out a letter in January ordering those "who feel they cannot solemnize same-sex marriages" to "resign their appointments" effective March 31.

... Advocates of same-sex marriage, however, were heartened by the news.

Tim Stevenson, a Vancouver city councillor and United Church minister, said the province is merely acknowledging the court's stance on the issue. He applauded the government for ensuring that commissioners could no more turn down a marriage based on gender than they could turn down a marriage based on skin colour.

Egg-ZACTLY. And as I've said all along -- and I would extend it to include clergy.

They're performing a service that the province is constitutionally mandated to perform -- pursuant to its jurisdiction over the "solemnization of marriage in the province" -- as agents of the state. And the state just does not get to discriminate in the delivery of services to which all members of the public are entitled, regardless of who might be acting as its agent for the purpose.

The clergy should be entitled to mutter whatever mumbo-jumbo they want, for whoever wants it -- but they should not be recognized for the purpose of performing marriages recognized by the state unless they provide that service without discrimination. Of course, we may have to wait for that bit of lucidity to enter the public discourse. ;)


Btw, about the BC cabinet minister who married his partner -- was he really in the closet prior to his marriage, or just not able to marry?

.

[theHandpuppet]

6. Oh NOoooooo!

Now there will be an epidemic of heterosexual divorces in BC! Straight couples throughout the province will declare their own unions desecrated and will throw themselves en masse, like lemmings, into the Pacific. Meanwhile, there are reports that human-moose couplings are all the rage on the singles scene, whilst legislation has been introduced to require all teenage girls to "bear fruit" before being granted their high school diplomas.

The sky is falling, I tell you! Everybody duck! ;-)

[Grey]

7. You can stop cheering,

Ted Nebbling has been dropped from cabinet.
Gordo strikes again.

[Ediacara]

9. You're kidding right?

Gordo strikes again is right..... Although maybe he assume that BC will have 4 more governments before the Olympics so sacking his Minister won't be so bad....

[LiberalTexan]

8. Many happy returns

I'm sure that after that many years of love and devotion the ceremony was heartfelt and beautiful. I've been with my husband just seven years and it feels like every day is a gift. I can't imagine having to wait so long to tie the knot! :hug: