Gay policians e out of the closet and to the bet - The Globe and Mail

Contents:

• FIVE QUTNS WH THE FIRST OPENLY GAY POLICIAN ELECTED ALBERTA, ALMOST 25 YEARS AGO
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• 5 OPENLY GAY POLICIANS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
• MANOBA'S FIRST OPENLY GAY POLICIAN LOOKS BACK ON REER, STGGLE FOR RIGHTS
• GAY POLICIANS E OUT OF THE CLOSET AND TO THE BET

FIVE QUTNS WH THE FIRST OPENLY GAY POLICIAN ELECTED ALBERTA, ALMOST 25 YEARS AGO

He’s bt known for his lls to end the blood ban agast queer men and trans women; November 2020, he ma headl when he asked Mister of Health Patty Hajdu if she would accept a donatn of his blood as an openly gay man. Michael Phair at home Edmonton, Alberta on Thursday, March 3, Bracken/The Globe and MailElected as an Edmonton cy uncillor 1992, Michael Phair was a part of an early wave of openly gay ndidat who broke down old barriers Canadian polics by wng electns – a list that also clus former Brish Columbia MP Svend Robson and former Wnipeg mayor (and now Toronto MPP) Glen Murray. The "middle-age, pl" Edmonton stalwart tak up the chairman's post for the Universy of Alberta's board of ernors, for a term of at least three were the first openly gay polician elected Alberta, almost 25 years ago, and one of the first the untry.

They say 's bee of Robson and others like him that they're able to do their they also say they ntue to face hatred and threats, and there is still work to be done to fight 's a short vio of the broadst news segment that aired at the time:MP Svend Robson out as gay, 1988Former B. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Prs)Whereas 30 years ago Robson was part of "one of the most exclive clubs the world" as a gay MP, today he equently meets and speaks wh LGBT elected officials.

PolicsCanada is now home to about one ln people who intify as members of the LGBTQ muny, wh people unr the age of 25 acuntg for a disproportnately large portn of the LGBTQ says s reportg on transgenr populatns will improveA rabow flag hangs Montreal's Gay Village.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The anizatn said March that no longer wanted policians and polil lears to downtown Charlottetown para to celebrate gay muny set for July 29The streets of downtown Charlottetown were full of supporters hoistg and wearg rabow lours durg P. Evangelil Prottants, most often the vanguard of antigay protts, have been a visible prence Canadian polil life, but they are much ls fluential than their Amerin s, nstutg ls than 10% of the overall populatn (Malloy, 2011).

5 OPENLY GAY POLICIANS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Individual unns, mostly the public sector, began supportg lbian and gay claims the 1980s, and the next a good part of the overall labor movement was assertively backg the LGBT e and soon takg on issu of genr inty as well as sexual orientatn. This effectively postponed engagement wh the polilly and religly load qutn of marriage—an issue that also had much potential for broang anti-gay mobilizatn and dividg the LGBT movement. The were equently subject to police harassment, and Canada experienced a versn of the McCarthye attack on homosexualy as damagg to societal morals and a threat to natnal secury (Ksman & Gentile, 2011).

The character of gay liberatn was not much different om that of the Uned Stat and those parts of Europe where had emerged, though wh a smaller-sle surge of activist energy than major ci elsewhere. But as Tim McCaskell puts , there were, om the outset, “down-to-earth” activists who foced on buildg the polil strength and cultural valy of distguishable gay and lbian nstuenci (McCaskell, 2016, p.

Femism was an important analytil amework for most lbians the movement, but also for many men, while others argued that femist advocy was entirely distct om and at tim anthetil to gay liberatn. One illtratn of heterogeney, even among those fully rmed by radil approach, was the first prott march on Parliament Hill Ottawa 1971, an early tone of the newly energized movement, anized largely by self-intified adherents to gay liberatn. In 1975, the Coaln for Gay Rights Ontar was tablished by activists proudly wearg the liberatnist label, but foced, through much of the group’s mandate, on securg formal rights protectns provcial human rights law (Warner, 2002).

MANOBA'S FIRST OPENLY GAY POLICIAN LOOKS BACK ON REER, STGGLE FOR RIGHTS

Among the groups that bed radil ias and a foc on the rights of a fable gay and lbian mory was Vanuver’s Gay Alliance Toward Equaly, which lnched a formal challenge to the Vanuver Sun’s refal to prt one of s ads soon after s formatn 1971, eventually securg a victory the Supreme Court of Canada (Gay Alliance Toward Equaly v. The Natnal Gay Rights Coaln (later the Canadian Lbian and Gay Rights Coaln) was tablished 1975, though s half of existence was marked by the srcy of rourc and the recurrence of nflict across genr l, strategy, and polil iology.

GAY POLICIANS E OUT OF THE CLOSET AND TO THE BET

In addn, Canadian branch of the Amerin-born Metropolan Communy Church, based largely on lbian and gay ngregatns, were tablished Toronto and Montreal 1973, and soon after Vanuver, Edmonton, Calgary, Wnipeg, and Ottawa. Most of the groups formed the first wave of liberatnist activism had only a short life, and those that endured, like Gays of Ottawa, Gays for Equaly Wnipeg, and Gay Alliance for Equaly Halifax, me to rely on only small handfuls of volunteers (Warner, 2002, pp.

In Montreal, lol thori’ termatn to “clean up” the cy produced major police attacks on gay stutns, startg 1975 and culmatg a massive 1977 arrt of almost 150 men at the Txx bar (Tremblay, 2015a). In Toronto, police raid bathho 1978 and 1979, and was at this time that lol evangelil Christians began mobilizg anti-gay sentiment, vg Ana Bryant to speak the cy soon after her succsful mpaign to reverse civil rights protectns Miami. The 1980 cy electn saw the victory of a ndidate who attacked “San Francis-style gay power polics, ” and one year later the lol school board banned “proselytizg” homosexualy (Warner, 2002, p.