(Not too sure where I am going with this, but sure) On May 14th, 1969, the current Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau passed Bill C-150. Bill C-150 decriminalized homosexuality for men over the age of 21 (CBC, 2015), a huge step for gay rights in Canada. This allowed Everett Klippert who was arrested for admitting to being gay, to be released in 1971. Fourty-five days after Bill C-150 was passed, on the 28th of June, in the US the Stonewall riots were triggered by a raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York. The police harassed the patrons, and after a woman was hit over the head; the entire group that had stuck behind struck. They threw everything from pennies to bricks at the police. It wasn’t the first step in the American gay rights movement, but it was a sign that they were no longer willing to put up with what was happening. It started what the gay rights movement is in the US today.
Between Canada and the US alone, we have a rich history, but that is discarding all the other countries progress or their lack thereof. For instance, LGBT+ rights are currently under threat by the governments in Russia, Indonesia, the USA, and at least 18 others (Hutt, 2018). For a community that has fought so long for recognition, we seem to be taking two steps forward and are being shoved four steps back. For the discrimination to decrease, some of the major points of the LGBT history should be included in the history textbooks everywhere. The best way to decrease fear is to increase our knowledge.
(Why is it important, that we as people learn) We need to have the history in the books because there is still a death penalty for homosexuality in Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Northern Nigeria, and parts of Somalia. Those are the only ones which is mandatory by the state due to Sharia law. In Syria and Iraq, anyone who is homosexual can be killed by the village that they live within. This law could be implemented in Qatar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mauritania, and the United Arab Emirates (Hutt, 2018). People are still dying today in those countries, just for being attracted to their own gender, something that they can’t control. It is an act of discrimination and homophobia in a world that has said that it is going to be better.
These are people, killed for being themselves in their countries. Killed because they do not fit a social norm that many people do not fit. As no two people are the same, why should everyone be expected to be of one sexuality. Even the animal kingdom isn’t strictly straight, recently, two male penguins hatched an egg in the Australia zoo (CBS News, 2018). The only species that kills off the homosexuals of it's kind are humans.
(The gays of the past who did things) Some well known LGBT members of the past are Frida Kahlo, who was known to have been openly bisexual, and despite her marriage to her husband, was known to have a relationship with French dancer Josephine Baker, and Leon Trotsky (National Geographic, 2018). Next was Virginia Woolf, who despite being in a loving marriage with her husband, was allowed many affairs. Most of these were affairs with women, the most well known one being Vita Sackville-West. She wrote Orlando for her, which Vita’s son Nigel has attested to being “the longest and most charming love letter in literature” (Shukla, 2007). There is also King James the first of England and the fifth of Scotland, who biographers agree had taken many male lovers, one of which by the name of George Villiers. While he did have a wife, it was more to secure his rule and an heir, than out of choice. Finally, there is Queen Christina of Sweden, who instead of marrying her cousin as she had originally planned, named him her heir. She then abdicated the throne and was said to continuously exchange passionate letters with Ebba Sparre. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all people who lived in a time where it was not widely accepted that people aren’t all straight.
It’s important to let people know about these figures of the past, because it has been said that being gay is a fad, or that it started just a few years ago. If we pay attention, that isn’t true. Informing teenagers and adults that they aren’t alone, that they aren’t weird for loving genders other than the ones directly opposite of theirs. This leads to people feeling accepted, feeling like they belong among the people of this world. No matter what time a person is from, that is the biggest thing people want to feel, that they are accepted.
(Major moments, aka, get your stuff together and grab you hats!)Now there is a real history of the LGBT community in Canada, which all began with a man by the name of Everett Klippert who was arrested for admitting that he was gay. This sparked the movement, in which Pierre Trudeau was a major player, promising to decriminalize homosexuality. Which he actually followed through with in the form of Bill C-150. Everett was released a few years after. 1977 saw Quebec adding sexual orientation to it's human rights code. A move that made it illegal to discriminate because of someone’s sexuality. The next year Canada removes gays from the list of persons not allowed in under its new immigration act. 1979’s Canadian Human Rights Commission suggests that sexual orientation be address to the Canadian Human Rights act. In 1985 the government listened ( CBC news, 2015).
This is only a slice of the past of the LGBT community in Canada. This is only a very small piece of history, compared to the history in Germany, or the European countries. For instance, Germany burned books during the Nazi’s reign (Rising, 2013) some of which were known to have been on the study of sexuality, others on religion.
(Conclusion bois hang on tight!) Since people have began to exist, we have often strayed from the norm. We built things like houses, or spears, tamed animals, and created clothes and languages. We could have remained in the same place and way of thinking as we once did. We didn’t though, we pushed forward and built our way up to the top of the food chain where we were once near the bottom. We don’t have a strong outer shell, so we built armour; just like how we had no way of defending ourselves, so we built knives, spears, bows and arrows, and others of the like. Humans by all rights should not have survived as long as we have. The only discernible difference between us and the rest of the species of the world is that we are too stubborn to let ourselves die.
So what is so different between us having differences in personality, and the way we build things to how what sort of people we like?