The town is only about an hour from where I live and I've stopped there to see the Enterprise model.

Bravo to California, and to Mr. Sulu. And he looks pretty good for 71! Digressing from topic a little...I was never a big fan of the show and its many spinoffs, but Trekkies may find this you-tube video about Vulcan, Alberta to be interesting. The town is only about an hour from where I live and I've stopped there to see the Enterprise model. They have a Star Trek convention annually, and this year's special guest was the son of the late Gene Rodenberry.

As for gay marriage in Canada, although it has been legal throughout the country for three years and most people accept it now, not surprisingly most churches (and non-Christian faiths) continue to reject it. The only exceptions are still the United Church of Canada as well as the Unitarians. However, there has certainly been some encouraging and lively debate within a few of the other Protestant churches, namely the Anglicans and Lutherans. In fact, a Lutheran church in Newmarket (Ontario) recently ordained a gay pastor.

Five if you count New York, who will accept marriages performed in other states/countries.

Why I Now Support Gay Marriage

WHEN I ran in the Democratic primary for governor against Eliot Spitzer in 2006, I vocally supported civil unions for same-sex couples but did not endorse equal marriage. I understood the need to provide equal rights for gays and lesbians, but as a practicing Catholic, I also felt that the state should not infringe on religious institutions’ right to view marriage in accordance with their own traditions. I thought civil unions for same-sex couples would address my concerns regarding both equality and religious liberty.

I was wrong.

I have listened to many well-reasoned and well-intentioned arguments both for and against same-sex marriage. And as I talked to gays and lesbians and heard their stories of pain, discrimination and love, my platitudes about civil unions began to ring hollow. I have struggled to find the solution that best serves the common good.

I now support same-sex marriage. This is a subject of great debate before the New York State Legislature (although the legislators there are a little distracted right now), and I hope that same-sex civil marriage will be approved within the month.

Under current New York State law, same-sex couples are deprived of access to the employment benefits, life and health insurance and inheritance laws that heterosexual couples have. If the state were to institute civil unions for same-sex couples, that discrimination would end, but we’d still be creating a separate and unequal system.

Civil unions for both heterosexual and same-sex couples would be an equal system, but this compromise appears unlikely at the current time. Few heterosexual couples would give up their current civil marriage for a civil union. While some states would recognize civil unions for all, others would not, causing legal problems for New York couples. Advocates of same-sex marriage don’t seem in favor of such a compromise either.

According to the last census, there are an estimated 50,000 households headed by same-sex couples in New York, many who were married in other states. Those marriages are recognized by New York courts as valid. As a result, we have same-sex marriage for some in New York (albeit performed out of state) and no marriage at all for other same-sex couples.

Any change in the New York law can, and must, balance equality while making sure that religious institutions remain free to choose whether to marry same-sex couples. By following the example of Connecticut and Vermont, which included protections for religious institutions when they recently legalized same-sex marriage, we can ensure that churches are not forced to consecrate marriages they do not endorse. This will require a strong liberty clause allowing religious institutions to opt out of solemnizing same-sex marriage, which also applies to the provision of services and programs at religiously affiliated institutions.

Many civil marriages are not considered “holy matrimony” by religious institutions because they do not conform to the rules of the religious institution. Those marriages have not challenged religious liberty. We must see that civil marriage, which has always been separate from religious marriage, will remain so.

But most important, gays and lesbians have suffered too long from legal discrimination, social marginalization and even violence. They are entitled to clear recognition of their equal status as citizens of a country that is founded on the principle that we are all inherently worthy. By delivering a clear message that same-sex couples can no longer be treated as separate and unequal in New York, we will also reduce discrimination in everyday life. We will all be better for that.

Equal civil marriage should, and likely will, pass because of the public’s growing unwillingness to sustain inequality. Society will also be strengthened as more people take responsibility for one another in marriage. I now encourage others who oppose gay marriage to re-examine the reasons they do so, and to consider changing their minds too.

Tom Suozzi is the Nassau County executive.

Ontario doesn't distinguish between same-sex and opposite sex couples in its marriage statistics, but the City of Toronto does. Date, sex and partial postal code data for same-sex couples married in Toronto were released to the Star recently under access-to-information laws, opening the door to a large amount of new information about the over 5,500 gay and lesbian couples married here since June, 2003. Once again, thanks to the Star's Andy Bailey for helping to make sense of the data.

The data sheds light on the different neighbourhood patterns of Toronto's married lesbians and gay men, and also where people who came to the city to be married from across Canada and the United States came from.

From June 10, 2003 to May 5, 2009, the final date covered in the data the City sent us, 5,564 same-sex couples were issued marriage licences in Toronto. 2,326 marriages were of lesbians, and 3,238 of gay men.
* * *
5,435 individuals came from Toronto, 899 from Canada outside the city, and 4,651 from the United States. The remainder could not be identified by a Canadian postal code or U.S. zip code, though a handful were obviously British.
* * *
Looking at the top U.S. cities represented, based on the first three digits of the zip code, gay men were weighted more to the South and California, while lesbians came more from communities in New York State and the Midwest.

The men's top 10 list includes Washington, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami, while the women's top 10 list includes Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Madison, mid-Long Island, Rochester, Columbus and Detroit. New York, Chicago and Minneapolis are on both lists.

Population density data shows that U.S. lesbians married here came from more rural communities, and gay men from more urban ones.

...and we definitely danced better than that group, lol.

‘We’re going to plan your wedding in a couple of years — this is going to happen.’ ”

Skinner was walking home on Adelaide St from a birthday party for his sister in the Entertainment district when he was "assaulted by between two and four males," detective Stacey Gallant, the lead investigator on the case said in an Oct 22 press conference.

"He was beaten to the ground and kicked when he was on the ground," before the attackers returned to their black SUV. Once in the car, they "ran over Mr Skinner with both the front and rear tires. They accelerated the car away from the scene and continued to go east on Adelaide St."