Brent Hawkes

Brent Hawkes, CM (born in Bath, New Brunswick) is a Canadian clergyman. Since 1977, he has served as senior pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto for LGBT parishioners, and is one of Canada's leading gay rights activists.

Born into a Baptist family, Hawkes has Bachelor of Science (1972) and Bachelor of Education (1973) degrees from Mount Allison University, and Master of Divinity (1986) and Doctor of Ministry (2001) degrees from Trinity College, an Anglican institution at the University of Toronto. His church serves as a faith community for about 575 congregants at regular Sunday worship. Hawkes also presides over the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto Christmas Eve Service, which is held at Roy Thomson Hall.

He has served on the advisory committee of PrideVision TV, and served on the board of directors for "EGALE". In addition to his advocacy work on LGBT issues, he has supported anti-racist initiatives, drawn attention to poverty and poor housing, and advocated the ordination of female priests. In addition to his pastoral work, Hawkes is a member of the UFMCC Strategic Growth Initiative.^{[citation needed]}

Hawkes briefly entered political life in the mid-1990s. In the Ontario provincial election of 1995, Hawkes ran as a candidate of the social-democratic New Democratic Party of Ontario in the riding of St. George—St. David, which has a large GLBT community. He finished a strong third with 9,672 votes, less than one thousand votes behind the winner, Progressive Conservative Al Leach. Hawkes's strong showing played a major role in defeating incumbent Liberal Tim Murphy.

On January 14, 2001, Hawkes gained national attention by performing a wedding ceremony for two same-sex couples at the Metropolitan Community Church. Although city clerks would not issue marriage licenses for same-sex marriages at this time, Hawkes employed the alternative provided in Ontario law for regular church attendees to publish official banns for three consecutive weeks, and thereby conducted a legal marriage without requiring prior government permission. In the spirit of the banns as a public opportunity for interested parties to raise legal objections, the church also issued a press release in late 2000 announcing its intentions. The government of Jean Chrétien did not endorse the marriages, although Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson sent a personal letter of support. The city clerk refused to register the record of marriage, leading to a court battle. On July 12, 2002, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the marriages performed by Hawkes in January 2001 were legal, but stayed its decision pending a possible appeal, and on June 10, 2003, the Court of Appeal for Ontario declared the common law definition of marriage as "invalid to the extent that it refers to “one man and one woman” [Halpern et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada et al.], immediately striking down all barriers against same-sex marriage in the province (Court of Appeal for Ontario)

Hawkes lives in Toronto with John Sproule, his partner of more than twenty years. They married on March 7, 2006.

In 2009, Hawkes was awarded an honorary doctorate from York University.

Hawkes was the officiant at the state funeral of Jack Layton, Leader of Canada's Official Opposition and head of the NDP, on August 27, 2011 at Roy Thomson Hall. A fellow New Democrat, he spoke highly of Layton who had touched millions of Canadians with his sudden death. In the end, he thanked Jack Layton for his work with the gay community and HIV/AIDs, issues the NDP Leader had championed when they were not popular.^{[citation needed]}

Recognition

• 1994 - City of Toronto Award of Merit^{[citation needed]}
• 1995 - Global Citizen Award from the United Nations Toronto Association
• Distinguished Service Award from the Metropolitan Community Church presented by the denomination's founder, Rev. Troy Perry
• June 29, 2007 - appointed by Governor General Michaëlle Jean as a member to the Order of Canada
• September 16, 2009 - New Brunswick Human Rights Commission's Pioneer of Human Rights Award.

External links

• Brent Hawkes at the Internet Movie Database