About Canada Queer Rights

Peter Knegt

Is Canada a ”queer utopia”? Canada was the fourth country in the world — and the first in the Western Hemisphere — to legalize same-sex marriage. Queer people in Canada enjoy many of the same legal rights as heterosexuals, and social acceptance of homosexuality has grown exponentially. But are these the goals that queer activists hoped to achieve? Is this legal regulation and normalization of homosexuality what the Gay Liberation Movement of the early 1970s fought for? Using this liberation movement as a starting point, About Canada: Queer Rights examines the history of the struggle for queer rights in Canada to create a better understanding of the present. What Peter Knegt finds is that Canada’s queer people are as diverse and multicultural as Canada itself — they are not easily generalized and have most certainly not achieved equality.

Contents

1. What Does Our Progress Mean? 
2. Regional Organizing 
3. Legal Reform
4. Institutional Homophobia 
5. Children, Youth and Education
6. Health 
7. Difference and Privilege 

Conclusion 

Bibliography

List of Supplementary Materials

About the Author

Peter Knegt holds an MA in media studies from Concordia University. He has written for the Undergraduate Journal of Sexual Diversity Studies, Xtra!, Exclaim, InToronto, Variety and Playback, and is the associate editor of indieWIRE.