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Essay: Revolutionary Civil Rights for LGBTQ Citizens in Canada: A History

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  • Reading time: 5 minutes
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  • Published: 23 February 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 1,468 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 6 (approx)
  • Tags: Essays on LGBTQ+ rights

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During the past five decades, same-sex marriage in Canada, has become so revolutionized that today both men and women, can marry whoever they want, all across the nation. This is not to say that gay men and lesbian women do not face any difficulties today. Though, 53 years ago, gays, lesbians, same-sex common partners, were not allowed to get married, unable to hold a job, gay and lesbian men and women were thought to be “dangerous sex offenders” (Cotler, 2015). The revolutionary period in Canada is all to the power of notable politicians and Canadian citizens who wanted to take Canada and Canadian democracy further to give other Canadians what they deserve.

In 1965, a Northwest Territories resident, Everett Klippert, opened up about his sexuality and admitted to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to having sex with men over the span of 24 years. Mr. Klippert was insistent he was not going to change about who he is. Everett Klippert was labelled a dangerous sex offender and sentenced to life in prison as homosexual acts was punishable by imprisonment in the Criminal Code of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of the sentence.

Shortly after Mr. Klippert conviction, in 1967, Justice Minister, Pierre Trudeau made amendments that he promises to change the Criminal Code of Canada, and decriminalizing homosexual acts. In a revolutionary televised broadcast interview, Trudeau illustrated his concern by saying “I think the view we take here is that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. I think that what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code” (Nash, Hiscox, Ditchburn and Robson, 2003). According to CBC, 3 years after that interview, Trudeau's promise amendments were passed into the Criminal Code which decriminalizing homosexuality in Canada ("Same-sex rights in Canada", 2012). As a result, Everett Klippert was released from prison in 1971.

It was 1977, The first province that included sexual orientation in its Human Right Code was Quebec. By 2001, all province and territories took part in doing so as well expect Alberta, Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories (Colter, 2015). The civil law would it make it illegal to discriminate against any man or woman in regards to housing, public accommodations and employment ("Same-sex rights in Canada", 2012).

With a shift in Canadian history in the making, Canadians were about to see another major change which was made the government. In a book Flaunt It! written by Jackson & Persky (1982), during that same year, homosexuals, were no longer barred from entering Canada (p. 230).

Despite the Canadian popultation winning their deserved rights and seeing change around them, the government had barred gays and lesbians from possibly the most important aspect of being a democratic Canadian citizen. The government was barring gay and lesbian individiauls from being included from the Human Rights Act. The 1990s will be the start of violence against gays and lesbains from homophobes, who will become vocalized and organize violent protest.

On a cold Feburary night, Toronto Police Serice violently raided and arreted 300 gay men in a Toronto bathhouse; they were charged with owning or being found in a common bawdy house (Slaughter, 2012). The day after the raid, over 3,000 men and women showed up to rally in and around the Toronto area because the raid was seen as an act of hatred towards gay men ("Same-sex rights in Canada", 2012). Some of the consequences that these men faced from this were that a newspaer outlet had secrelty obtained the names of those individuals that were arrested that Feburary night. After obtarining those names, the newspaper went out and published some of the 300 men that were arrested. This caused these men to be exposed to their family, friends, employers, some even lost their jobs (Slaughter, 2012).

Some of the factors that impacted gay men and women when it comes to sexual orientation are financial instability, emotional instability, and relational between themselves and their partner. Though there are laws, and regulations that prohibit any employer, residental owner, public housing to deny anyone due to their sexual orientation and or prefrences, does not mean it does not happen. Gay men and lesbian women to this day, still struggle to find work which hinders their financial stability, unable to provide for themselves, or their family. In addition this may be because due to the fact that these individuals have to fill out forms when they are applying for a job and may indicate that they are hetrosexual to avoid workplace harrasssment or they are too afraid of being rejected for the job (Barreto, Ryan & Schmitt, 2009).

Secondly, with someone who is just coming out as beign gay or lesbian or anyone who identifys as a member of the LGBTQ community, it can really impact them on an emtional level as they are not fully comprehending why they are feelling that way (Kranz & Wortmeier, 2016). Some of these younger adolescents are afraid to tell their family members or friends in fear of being judged or victimized. In addition, some of these individuals do not even express their sexuality out of fear when they are older.

When these men and women do get in to homosexual relationships, they usually have to keep their relationship secretive so that others do not find out, and this still continues to happen today though, we have laws to allow same-sex couples withouth being discriminated against (Kranz & Wortmeier, 2016).

The attitude for both parties are very strong and opinionated. These are members of the LGBTQ community who are just simply asking for basic rights and freedoms as any other man or woman, regardless of their sexuality orientation. The other party is the government, landlords, employers, or anyone who still believes in the same concept that was in place prior to the 1960s. That concept being that love and marriage should be between a man a woman and no one else. There are politicians that still want to reverse the Civil Marriage Act back to “Marriage, for civil purposes, is the lawful union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others” (Nash, Hiscox, Ditchburn and Robson, 2003)

Furthermore, there are still public housing and other private landlords that do not allow for same-sex couples to rent out their premise. According to a Global News article (Judd, 2012), it was posted that a 25 year old man, Johnathan Prety was denyed housing because he was gay. His potenial landlord argued he was in fear of contracting HIV from th possible tennant. It was stated that though discriminating against ones sexuality is against the law, it does still happens, maybe not this overtly, but certainly happens (Judd, 2013). Mr. Pretty plans to take the landlord to the BC Human Rights Tribunal.

Similarly, an all-girl Catholic Board school teacher in BC was asked not to return to work after it was discovered her and her spouse had a child. She was asked to leave as the school board thought the educator’s sexual orientation would influence the girl’s sexuality in a negative manner because it is a Catholic school. The parents and guardians of the girls did not approve of the school teachers because their school teacher and her spouse had a child. This comes to prove that regardless of having laws, bigotry and homophobes will continue to oppress gay and lesbian individuals.

Protection against discrimination is an issue that is both a manifest conflict and a latent conflict. It is both because in the past during the 1960s-1980s it used to be manifest as homophobia was very common amongst the communities. Now, almost 60 years later the issue has become more latent. There are some people who are still homophobic due to religious reasons, personal reasons or it was how their parents raised them. Though in the 21st century, most individuals keep their negative comments to themselves. It is not to say homophobia has disappeared.

Though there are laws that exist against discriminating the LGBTQ community or any individual, there always going to be some form of discrimination against the minority group. Mediation would work in some scenarios where the government is not involved. Some of these scenarios would include not being able to rent a room, being fired from work or not being hired because of their sexuality.

I believe both parties should take part in rights-based dispute resolution method. Arbitration would work best for these types of scenario because discussing someone’s sexuality should be done in private and not in public for others to hear. Although some people might opt out for this because both parties would have to pay for their session. Both parties have to raise the issue of what is that they are looking for in their mediation. Mediation is the best practice because since discrimination is against the law, it gives both parties to learn from their mistakes and avoid being incarcerated.

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