[BRIEF NOTE] Modernizing Adultery

[rfmcdonald]

It's a little-known fact that, under Canadian family law, a married person who violated his or her bonds of matrimony by having a same-sex affair did not, in fact, commit adultery. Why this is the case I don't know. Perhaps it was a byproduct of the belief that same-sex relations weren't real sex? A same-sex adulterous affair has historically been treated, instead, as cruelty and possible--though not automatic--grounds for divorce. This has changed, partly as a result of same-sex marriage legislation, partly (as Judge Gerson noted) because of changing mores.

I approve of this, since this decision tidies up some obvious loose ends. Others might be of different opinions, for various reasons. Regardless, it's interesting to watch each of the different unexpected impacts of same-sex marriage upon Canada, to see the unspoken and often unadmitted assumptions respond to challenges of different sorts and examine how well they fare upon critical examination, to discover how much accepted wisdom in fact isn't wise.