Angry in the Great White North

In British Columbia, a lesbian couple have won their human rights case against a Catholic hall:

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled in favour of two lesbian women who claim they were discriminated against by a Catholic men's organization when they booked a hall for their wedding reception in the fall of 2003.

Deborah Chymyshyn and Tracey Smith allege the Knights of Columbus council in Port Coquitlam cancelled their contract when they found out it was for a same-sex couple, after they had already paid their deposit and sent out their wedding invitations.

The judgment says that the Knights of Columbus council "failed in their duty to accommodate the plaintiffs when they refused the rental of the hall to them," said their lawyer barbara findlay (who requests that her name is spelled in lowercase letters).

So what should the Knights of Columbus done differently. For one, they could have found the women another hall:

Though findlay and her clients are "jubilant" that they won the ruling, the legal challenge may not be over.

"For gay and lesbian people, we are going to need to study this judgment in detail. While my clients won their case, it currently appears that if the Knights of Columbus had found them another hall, the tribunal would have agreed that they could refuse the rental to my clients," findlay said.

"So one way of characterizing it is that we won the battle but we lost the war."

Got that? The Human Rights Tribunal suggested that had the Knights found an alternate location sufficient for the needs for the reception, they would have met the burden of accommodating them.

Seems fair, given that the Knights had initially agreed to host the reception (apparently when the women originally showed up to rent the hall, the person who took the book assumed that they were relatives representing a heterosexual couple).

But for findlay, that would have been unacceptable. For her, the "war" is about making sure that gays and lesbians have the right to go anywhere and at anytime and celebrate their homosexuality. A Gay Pride Parade 24/7. And if anyone tries to lock a door to a hall, a school, a church -- well, that door is going to get kicked down.

Because they have rights.