A Queer Canadian History Lesson

Does anyone miss ye old days when admitting that you were gay got you incarcerated, labelled clinically insane, or (the best of the bunch), a dangerous sex offender? We can only hope that most people would answer no...but the last time I looked there were still a lot of ignorant religious people/ institutions on this earth. *sigh*

In order to fully appreciate what gay rights have been gained in Canada we have to go back, way back, to 1965, when admitting you were gay landed you in prison. It was Pierre Trudeau who passed the amandment that decriminalized homosexuality in Canada.

In 1978 a new Immigration Act was finally drawn up which removed homosexuals from those who cannot be admitted to the country. Definitely a big improvement.

The bath house raids of 1981 in Toronto was the largest mass arrest since the War Measures Act was invoked during the October Crisis. 300 men went to prison, and 3,000 protested in the streets that night. Just shows you, don't piss gay men off. Unless you want to deal with the consequences, and there will be big ones, believe me.

The year of my birth, 1988, was the year that the first MP, Svend Robinson, publicly came out of the closet. In B.C. he was elected for the 8th time in 2000. Go Svend! Its always empowering when someone in the public sphere makes their sexual orientation known, and thereby gives power to all those who feel they can't express themselves.

Ontario became the first province to make it legal for same-sex couples to adopt in 1995. A judge ruled that the Child and Family Services Act infringed on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and joint applications became available to same-sex partners! Now, whoever argues that gay parents cannot raise a child in the same kind of loving, positive environment that straight parents can are fucking crazy and have no basis for that argument. Same-sex parents are just people, and like any other parent they have the power to nurture or harm their child, but it has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Just keep that out of it, and the arguments fall flat.

In 2002 Marc Hall won the right to bring his boyfriend to prom at a catholic highschool. The Durham Catholic District schoolboard felt that allowing them to attend would reflect that the church accepts his "homosexual lifestyle." Oh go to hell Catholic schoolboard! We're not all virgins, saints and bible-followers. This is the real world.

The first same-sex marriage in Ontario took place on June 10, 2003, between Michael Leshner and Michael Stark, but it wasn't legalized in Canada until July 20, 2005. We have Jean Chretien and Paul Martin to thank for their contributions in bringing about a monumental change.

Then we have Steven Harper and other like-minded Conservatives to thank for trying to stall the vote for as long as they could, and reopening the issue in 2006 with a motion to reinstate the "traditional" definition of marriage in Canada. Too bad for you Harper, but Canadians know what they want. Hopefully it isn't you any longer.

There are still gains to be made, but there is no denying Canada has made many.

Here is a link for a nifty, slightly more educational timeline than mine, which details specific gains in same-sex rights from the good folks at CBC News.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/samesexrights/timeline_canada.html