Margaret Somerville is a well-known Montreal ethicist who holds a slew of honorary degrees — and strong opinions against same-sex marriage.
Her views have generated controversy, enraged gay-rights activists, attracted hate mail and even prompted protests during her classes at McGill University.
As she gets ready to accept yet another honorary degree, this time from Ryerson University — located near the heart of Toronto's gay community and on the eve of Pride Week — the controversy has followed her here.
So much so that even she's concerned opposition to her views might overshadow "a very special day for the students who are graduating."
Members of Toronto's gay community have already launched an online petition and letter-writing campaign to the university to "disinvite" Somerville.
And they're promising to protest the June 19 ceremony, scheduled just hours before the rainbow flag is to be raised at Toronto City Hall to kick off annual Pride Week festivities.
The situation highlights the difficulties universities, which are meant to be bastions of free thinking, face in awarding honorary degrees to well-known academics with strong beliefs on highly charged topics.
Somerville — who says her opinions come from a secular, non-partisan perspective — has written and spoken out during the national debate on same-sex marriage. She rejects the suggestion she's anti-gay, but rather says she believes marriage is primarily about having children and respecting their right to have both a mother and a father
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Ryerson president Sheldon Levy says the ceremony will go ahead, in part because of the obligation a university has "to free speech and to respect academic freedom, even when the subject matters are difficult and challenging."
Mandy Ridley of RyePRIDE, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered organization at the downtown Toronto university, said "it's really disappointing that Ryerson wants to give this individual an honorary degree. We hope they will do the right thing and stop this.
"There's nothing honorary about homophobia," added Ridley, whose group is behind the petition and letter-writing campaign.
Levy said the decision to award Somerville an honorary degree was made by the awards and ceremonial committee of the university's academic council "based on her academic work in medical ethics."
After hearing the complaints, Levy said he spoke to the academic council and to Somerville before the decision was made to continue.
"It's not meant to be hurtful. It was never meant to be disrespectful," he said in an interview yesterday. "Ryerson is an open and tolerant community that celebrates diversity and believes in equality."
But critics say the university's reputation for tolerance will be seriously compromised — that giving Somerville an honorary degree sends all the wrong messages for a university on the doorstep of Canada's largest gay community, especially during Pride Week celebrations and on the eve of a reopening of the national political debate on same-sex marriage.
"It just points out how far we still have to go as a community if something like this could be seen as being acceptable by a significant university in a major city," said Rev. Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church, who performed Canada's first gay-marriage ceremony.
He plans to invite Levy to visit his church the day before the ceremony; Levy said if the call comes, he will go.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last week there will be a free vote in Parliament on same-sex marriage this fall. MPs will be asked if they want to reopen discussion on the divisive issue.
"I don't think same-sex marriage is a good idea," Somerville said in an interview from Montreal. "But I haven't got any problems at all with being gay or standing up for the rights of gay people, and certainly and totally agree that the discrimination they've suffered in the past has been absolutely horrible."
Somerville — who is also slated to give the high-profile and nationally broadcast Massey Lectures sponsored by the University of Toronto in October — said
she disagrees with same-sex marriage proponents that parenting can be "gender-neutral."
Children get valuable genetic traits from each of their opposite-sex parents, something not possible with two mothers or two fathers, she said.
"It's about kids' rights," Somerville said, adding this honorary degree — her fifth — is "special" because it's a doctorate of science and thus recognizes the importance of ethics in that field.
Somerville said those in the gay community "want to vilify me" because she offers another viewpoint in the debate — a person can oppose discrimination against homosexuals but still not support same-sex marriage.
Councillor Kyle Rae, whose ward includes Ryerson and the gay district, said the decision to give Somerville a degree "reeks of an academic ivory tower process" that doesn't understand the message it sends about tolerance and equality. While making it clear that he's still calling on Levy to withdraw the honorary degree, Rae said if it goes ahead, the university must "clearly state that they do not in any way support the positions she's taken" on the same-sex marriage debate.
He'd also like to see rainbow flags, the symbol of gay pride, raised at the graduation ceremony.
"I hope they make it so abundantly clear that it's uncomfortable for her."
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