A 38-year-old Canadian sociology scholar and a male music teacher from Taiwan exchanged wedding vows before a minister in a church in Ontario Tuesday, becoming the Canadian province's first same-sex married couple since the provincial government legitimized such marriages recently.
Ma Chih-kai (
Simon, an assistant professor in sociology at the University of Ottawa, became acquainted with Ma when Ma was teaching him Mandarin and the Hokkien language.
According to Ma, Simon became a frequent visitor to his and his parents' home. It took his parents by surprise that "a buddy" of their only son turned out to be his "better half," Ma said.
Ma has been a frequent flyer between Taipei and Ottawa over the past several years, spending most of his income as a piano and singing teacher as well as director of a Taipei choir on plane tickets to and from Canada.
Ma's parents initially refused to accept that their son was going to give his hand in marriage to a man. But after Ma asked his aunt to try to persuade them, his parents were moved by her words and finally accepted the "unbelievable" fact that their son was gay.
Although the parents were absent from the wedding, they gave their blessings to the couple and bought Ma's plane ticket to Ottawa as a wedding gift, Ma said.
Ma and Simon plan to spend their honeymoon at Niagara Falls.
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