Recently, the Conservative Party of Canada gave up its long-standing anti-LGBT position (Gallagher par. 1). This was one of the many achievements of Canada’s LGBT community within the past decades. The country has traveled its way from stigmatizing and marginalizing gay people to having “one of the world’s strongest and most politicized LGBT communities” (Gallagher par. 10). The characteristics of this progress show how Canada has been changing, which makes them particularly relevant to Canadian Studies.
Over a few decades, Canada has made significant progress in terms of social attitudes toward the LGBT community. Legal and scientific understanding of homosexuality has changed to a great extent. Homosexuals used to be widely regarded as psychiatrically challenged people (Kimmel and Robinson 147). Nowadays, the LGBT community of Canada is one of the most empowered LGBT communities in the world. Gallagher stresses that “this painful social transformation [should not be confused] with righteous enlightenment and noble relinquishing of power” (par. 7). This shift was not as much about the efforts of the academic community to refute the image of homosexuality as a pathology. Neither was it about the efforts of the government or politicians to stop the persecution of LGBT people. It was about the LGBT community itself, which claimed its rights, defended its freedoms, fought for equality, and ultimately managed to redefine its place in society.
The LBGT progress in Canada is particularly relevant to Canadian Studies. One of the primary issues of these studies is exploring the matters of identity (Symons 11). Considering how highly diverse—linguistically, geographically, and historically—the Canadian society is, the question of what it means to be a Canadian is complicated (Campbell 5). But the diversity itself seems to be a part of the answer. Diversity is one of the basic principles of the Canadian state, which allows different parts of the society to speak out and struggle for their rights. The history of the LGBT community illustrates this struggle. In 1981, the police of Toronto arrested over 300 men in gay bathhouses, which was “the second-largest mass arrest in Canadian history” (Gallagher par. 12). After this, many gay people in different parts of the country “came out of the closet” and declared their sexuality publically. Recently, the chief of Toronto Police expressed their regrets for this raid (Brockbank par. 6). This is an important aspect of Canadian Studies: an example of solidarity and liberation of a marginalized and persecuted community.
Canada’s LGBT community’s empowerment “came from countless demonstrations, years of financing, protracted legal battles, and challenging institutions and attitudes” (Gallagher par. 16). Nowadays, victories of the LGBT movement in Canada are evident in the laws, policies, and social attitude (Browne and Nash 332). This experience of changing the social and political situation through activism is important for the modern history of Canada. From the point of view of Canadian Studies, the LGBT progress is an example of how the Canadian society evolved, driven by the resistance of the oppressed.
References
Brockbank, Nicole. “LGBT Liaison Officer Calls Chief Mark Saunders’ Bathhouse Raids Apology a ‘Huge Step’.” CBC News Toronto. 2016. Web.
Browne, Katherine, and Catherine J. Nash. “Resisting LGBT Rights Where “We Have Won”: Canada and Great Britain.” Journal of Human Rights 13.3 (2014): 322-336.
Campbell, Robert M. “Canadian Studies at the Millennium: The Journey Continues.” Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’Études Canadiennes 35.1 (2000): 5-26. Print.
Gallagher, Bob. “LGBT Progress Is a Canadian Success Story.” The Toronto Star. 2016. Web.
Kimmel, David, and Daniel J. Robinson. “Sex, Crime, Pathology: Homosexuality and Criminal Code Reform in Canada, 1949–1969.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 16.01 (2001): 147-165.
Symons, Thomas Henry Bull. To Know Ourselves. The Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies, Ottawa: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 1975. Print.