Entitlements of Culture

The bane of existence, comfort and justice for the alternate-gender community in Canada has always been society's conservative element.  Over the years the LGBT community has grown in confidence as the traditional shunning and shaming that they lived under making a misery of their lives for so long has become a thing of the past.  Very few in society now overtly threaten or attempt to shame gays and lesbians simply because they have become a legally integrated portion of society.

As general society yielded equality in ever greater measure to the gay and lesbian community, with the waning of societal pressures and lack of social, political and workplace oppression, people began to emerge from their safe places of refuge, able finally to be just as casual about their homosexuality as heterosexuals are about their place within society.  What was once seen to be scandalously unacceptable is now comfortably common.

And where are the political conservatives who once railed against the presence within society of destabilizing gender influences?  Why, for the most part, in the forefront of guaranteeing equality within society for all people of gender differences.  Immigration Minister Jason Kenney proudly lauds Canada as a haven for gay refugees from religiously and culturally repressive countries where being gay is a criminal offence.

The current Conservative-led Government of Canada has gone further on the international stage in advancing the human rights of gays than any previous Liberal government has.  It was feared when Stephen Harper was voted into power that his itinerary would most certainly include diminishing the rights of gays and lesbians, and nothing proved further from reality.

The presence of gays in all areas of public life, including among Conservative organizations has become commonplace.  "I can no longer shock people in the conservative movement when I tell them I'm gay - but I can shock gay people when I tell them I'm Conservative", Fred Litwin, former vice-president of the Ottawa Centre Conservatives related.

While Conservatives have accepted as normal the presence of gays and lesbians, gays and lesbians continue to harbour deep, dark suspicions about the motivation and sincerity of Conservatives as relates to their equality in society.  They will point to the Conservative party's annual convention having passed a resolution supporting religious organizations despite their refusals to perform same-sex marriages.

But simply because same-sex marriages are now legal in Canada it does not mean that everyone rejoices over that change in societal conventions.  And while Canadians, including Catholics who resist the notion of same-sex marriage, accept the reality of gender equality in all its manifestations, gays and lesbians will not accept the right of free choice for others regarding participation in their ceremonies, condemning them for lack of full acceptance.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has always supported same-sex marriage; as an individual, and as a Cabinet Minister he has lectured African and Caribbean countries on the world stage for their anti-homosexual laws.  "Canada's ambassador has written to the Russian government to express our deep concern and, yes, we have at his request, put a travel advisory on our website" respecting a Russian law banning "promotion" of homosexuality.

It was this government that closed an unforeseen loophole in the same-sex marriage law in Canada by extending it to make it easier for same-sex couples to divorce.  Updated version of Canada's official citizenship guide make it abundantly clear that the LGBT community has full rights of equality under Canadian law as an integral part of Canadian society, lest any prospective immigrants from repressive culures think otherwise.

Conservatives and people of a conservative bent as well, have no interest in attending Gay Pride events, although they support the community's right to celebrate in this way.  When political Conservatives have been seen to come out to such events in their community they have been booed in the past.  Their choice not to attend partially may stem from that, but in the main because these are events not particularly attractive to them.

That conservative values are not commmensurate with raucous and flamboyant public spectacles are hardly surprising.  They are held to be in poor taste, and the penchant to be just that, of those participating in garish costumes and sexually suggestive pantomimes are hardly to everyone's taste.  The LGBT community has awarded the larger community a noisy raspberry of condemnation for not fully endorsing such events.

In this way they are proving themselves - albeit they represent a relatively small proportion of the entire gay community - as being as fully intolerant and nasty-minded as those who once oppressed them.