Quitters

It didn't happen. The coast-to-coast explosion of gayitude that the "Institute of Marriage & Family" warned would happen if gay marriage wasn't stopped!(!!)... uhhhhh ... didn't happen. By the numbers, it appears that gay people are about as interested in getting married as straight people -- not so much. So IMF director Dave Quist (who ran as a Tory in my riding, ugh) has decided the battle against same-sex marriage isn't worth the trouble:

OTTAWA — The head of a national pro-family organization says it’s time to ditch the fight against gay marriage and push instead for tax breaks and other incentives to make marriage and child rearing more attractive options. Dave Quist, executive director of the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, said Thursday he has become less concerned about same-sex marriage since census figures released earlier this month demonstrated how rare gay marriage is.

Now the IMF will be setting its sights on those Living In Sin common-law straight couples, trying to convince them (through proposed tax benefits like income splitting) to get hitched or get off the pot. This is stupid and wrong on many levels, of course, foremost of which is that it's Nobody's Business how people conduct their love lives, whether they choose to marry or not. And even if there was a sudden upsurge in the popularity of marriage, you can bet that the IMF and their ilk would be looking to take it to the next level, maybe demanding laws that only recognize religious wedding ceremonies as true marriages. Everything else would have those fucking "scare quotes" they put around "everything" they don't "approve of". Because these people can never be satisfied... that's why their movement is imploding.

Meanwhile... pssst, gay peeps! The coast is clear! Make a run for the nearest JP and ring those wedding bells!

(h/t apply liberally)