By: Johanna Wu
People who are LGBTQ+ in North America and around the globe have been gaining rights slowly for many years. Now, they are losing the rights that they gained over the last four years as politicians push legislation that they think will create more safety for children. In more than 70 countries, it remains a crime to be LGBTQ+, and in extreme cases, one might even get the death penalty for being themself.
People who discriminate against LGBTQ+ believe that people should not change their gender at birth and that being gay is wrong. They want to ban transgender or non-binary youth.
Recently, politicians in the United States are getting rid of drag shows and storytimes for kids. Even though this is taking away rights, these politicians say that they are protecting the children.
Many people disagree with them, including Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, who said, “LGBTQ+2 rights are human rights.” This statement is true, under the Canadian Human Rights Act, which protects Canadians from 13 types of discrimination, among which are gender identity and expression.
Douglas Elliott, a lawyer who grew up in Canada, is gay and didn’t have the same protection growing up like youth do today. He has experienced many threats to his life as well as acceptance from his friends and family. Elliott and his partner founded his university’s first gay students’ club in 1977 and also fought for same-sex marriage, which was legalized in 2005 throughout Canada. “Everything we have today, we didn’t have when I was a kid. And the reason we have it today is because people like me fought to achieve this,” said Elliott.
The two sides both claim to be protecting children, which is startling, but what really is best for our kids? For them to have freedom, to learn, to grow as they choose, and to be able to express themselves.
Even if our human rights are written in Canadian law, not everyone will feel safe. According to Statistics Canada, the number of hate crimes reported to the police fixed on LGBTQ+ has been expanding. In 2019, 265 hate crimes were reported, and in 2021, the number increased to 423 hate crimes relating to LGBTQ+ matters. Many students still feel that their school is unsafe and many are still getting bullied or harassed.
Over the past couple of decades, there have been many who have defended and promoted the rights of LGBTQ+ people, but in recent years, there has been a major legislative push, to roll back these achievements we have made. While things are better than many decades before, change and support will still be needed if you want to make things better.
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