Court fight looms over gay wedding rights

Lawyers in Canada have promised to take Ontario officials to court if they refuse to register two homosexual marriages performed at a Toronto church.

In a ceremony billed as the world's first legal homosexual wedding since the Middle Ages, 800 observers attended the weddings of two couples - one gay and one lesbian.

The congregation were asked to donate to a fighting fund to go to court if the marriages are not recognised by the provincial government.

Despite the hurdle of government registration, the marriages of Kevin Bourassa to Joe Varnell and Elaine and Anne Vautour are legal unless nullified by a court, lawyers for the predominantly gay church said.

However, Bob Runciman, Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations and responsible for weddings, is on record as opposing the registration.

A spokesman for the gay couples said: "If Mr Runciman fails to see the light and refuses to register this, then I have instructions to commence court proceedings against the government of Ontario."

The ceremony mirrors a similar attempt to form a gay marriage in Winnipeg in 1974 through the publication of banns in a Unitarian Church.

In that case, however, after the province refused to register the marriage, a Manitoba court supported the government's position and nullified the marriage certificate.

In the Netherlands, a law allowing homosexual marriages passed in December, but the first marriages are not expected there until this spring.