Protected in Law
Our sexual orientation, based on same-sex attraction, is protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Allow us to introduce ourselves.
We are lesbian, gay and bisexual Canadians. LGB Alliance Canada is currently the only organization in Canada advocating specifically for the rights of same-sex attracted people, and we're part of a growing international movement with branches in more than a dozen countries. We campaign for the right of LGB people in Canada to live openly, and to be recognized as full members of society, on the basis of our same-sex attraction.
We are fighting a new homophobia.
While you may have been led to believe that LGB people have achieved full legal rights in Canada, at present our rights are being dialled back.
Let us explain.
We are facing a new kind of homophobia because we maintain that biological sex is the basis of our attraction. Organizations that claim to represent us (e.g., advocacy, HR, diversity and inclusion initiatives) now insist that gender identity is more important than biological sex. The concept of 'gender identity' comes from a new belief system which says that every person has an internal sense of a gendered essence, which makes them a man, a woman, neither, both, or even something else entirely.
The 'gender identity' belief system posits that biological sex is unimportant (or even, to some extremists, nonexistent). This is in direct conflict with the scientific facts of same-sex attraction: our sexual orientation is centred on our biological sex and the biological sex of our partners.
The gender identity belief system dictates that everyone's internal feelings override their biological sex - and not just for themselves: it mandates that everyone else must view them the same way, even in such deeply personal matters as who we choose to date and who we're attracted to.
Organizations that were originally founded to support same-sex attracted Canadians are now telling lesbians and gay men that we must be open to dating and having sex with people of the opposite sex, and they are shaming and expelling us for resisting such coercion. As homosexuals, we find this to be nothing short of homophobia.
Same-Sex Attraction Is Not a Prejudice to Unlearn
Extremist views about gender identity have real consequences for LGB Canadians.
Terms like 'lesbian' and 'gay' are being redefined to include heterosexual people. Lesbians and gay men are being expelled from our own organizations for asserting our exclusive same-sex attraction, and adherents of this new belief system decry that exclusive attraction as 'hate'.
This new homophobia has particularly affected lesbians who, as women, have historically had less power to maintain sexual and other boundaries. Lesbians today face constant and aggressive transgressions of those boundaries by heterosexual males who have been emboldened to intrude on lesbian spaces by extreme gender identity beliefs. It has become bad enough that many lesbian social groups have been forced underground to avoid homophobic harassment.
It’s like we’ve gone back to the 1950s.
LGB people in Canada struggled for decades to be recognized as same-sex attracted people and to hold the same rights in society as our heterosexual brothers and sisters. Our organization fights to uphold these hard-won rights, because extreme 'gender identity' beliefs are now being enshrined in legislation and are eroding them - our right to assemble, our right to self-definition, our right to have our own spaces, and our right to be represented and recognized in Canadian laws and institutions.
We are same-sex attracted people, not same-gender-identity attracted people. It is our human right to be recognized as such, and to be protected from discrimination on that basis.
We speak out against sexual coercion and assaults against lesbians while '2SLGBTQI+' advocacy groups stay silent.
Extreme gender identity beliefs have already infringed on the rights of LGB Canadians. We have seen LGB-only and single-sex spaces destroyed, and our sexuality forcibly redefined — a redefinition that has brought sexual coercion and assaults against lesbians with it. Organizations that once fought for gay rights no longer represent our interests: with the exception of ours, every one of them has abandoned its focus on same-sex attracted Canadians in favour of the claim that everyone's 'gender identity' feelings override their sex.
But same-sex attracted people and cross-gender-identifying people are not the same group. They have different experiences and different needs, and Canada's laws and institutions must recognize that difference. Otherwise the human rights of every same-sex attracted Canadian are in jeopardy — including those who currently identify as something other than their sex.
A medical scandal is unfolding right now.
Over the past decade, Canada has adopted a new medical protocol for children and adolescents - one that reaches immediately for powerful experimental drugs, synthetic hormones, and invasive surgery to permanently alter the bodies of young people distressed or confused about their biological sex. Its backers have reframed asking questions as cruel and regressive bigotry. They oppose exploratory talk therapy that might uncover the source of a child's confusion, and they work to block scientific inquiry into the sudden, unexplained surge in young patients distressed about the sex of their bodies.
Europe is already sounding the alarm. Countries long recognized as world leaders on the rights of same-sex attracted people - Sweden, Finland, France, and the United Kingdom - were among the first to warn of the harm this experimental protocol does to vulnerable young people. And it is same-sex attracted young people who bear the brunt of it.
The evidence has been building for half a century. Studies from around the world show that children distressed about their sex will, if left alone, most often grow up to be gay or lesbian. For many, it is a phase in the development of their homosexuality. Attempts to "fix" these children with what is euphemistically called "gender affirming care" amount to attempts to pre-emptively cure their homosexuality.
The harm is now coming to light. A growing number of "detransitioners" have been physically damaged and sterilized by unrestrained "gender affirming" medicine, and lawmakers across Europe are moving to restore nuance, caution, and proper scientific oversight. Our hope is that Canada follows them - and spares a generation of same-sex attracted people the harm we believe is being done to them now.
We are entirely non-partisan.
Too often, disputes about sexual orientation and gender identity are viewed through a lens of partisan politics and tribal allegiance. We reject that framing, and we decry the "culture war" attitude that pervades so much discussion of LGB and T issues. Every LGB Canadian holds rights under the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, whatever their political or religious beliefs - and we are committed to upholding those rights equally.
We are not aligned with the political left or the right, and we are not affiliated with any religious group. Political and religious non-partisanship is one of our core founding principles. The diversity of our membership reflects it: our advocacy stays out of the partisan fray and rests on facts, science, and secular law. Our purview is LGB rights, pure and simple.
We ask for respectful dialogue and open discussion.
Unlike many gender-identity adherents, we want our differing needs discussed openly, and our aim is coexistence and mutual respect. We want a dialogue that recognizes the real differences in our experiences without sacrificing scientific understanding, the sex-based rights and protections the LGB community depends on, or — most importantly — the long-term health of vulnerable young people.
We hope you'll join us in fighting the new homophobia.
Sincerely,
All of us at LGB Alliance Canada