Toronto expecting run on gay marriage licenses

Expecting a run on marriage licenses during its annual Gay Pride Week, the city of Toronto said on Monday it will extend hours at city hall for gay couples looking to take advantage of Canada's recently changed marriage laws.

"Given that it's Pride Week and next week is the parade, we are anticipating higher demand than usual," said Brad Ross, a spokesman for the City of Toronto.

City hall said that for the 23rd annual festival it would remain open to issue same-sex marriage licenses over the weekend of June 28-29.

Toronto's Gay Pride Week attracts about 1 million visitors to the city, injecting about C$76 million into the local economy.

The city began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples earlier this month after an Ontario court set aside the heterosexual definition of marriage as unconstitutional.

Final federal approval of the law change is expected within months.

Toronto has already issued about 175 marriage licenses to gay couples, 10 of which were to couples from the United States. It has also issued licenses to couples from England, China and the Cayman Islands.

Ontario has no residency or citizenship requirements for couples to wed. 

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