Political Science 2230E Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Canadian Human Rights Commission, Cross-Dressing, Correctional Service Of Canada
6 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
Human beings have many different personal characteristics, but some characteristics are not deemed to be socially or politically significant. Nothing is natural around grouping people based on their sexual identities. It was constructed against the background norm of heterosexuality. Created in the late half of the 19th century. Gay seen as being element of mental illness. Criminal code of canada, buggery anal sex between men. Buggery defined as any unnatural sex acts between two people of the same gender or with an animal. Punishment could be up to life in prison. Buggery or bestiality were together in the criminal code until 1987. Eventually distinction was made between private and public homosexuality. Private homosexuality is alright, not criminalized, tolerated. Public homosexuality was wrong, act considered deviant and criminal. 1969 amendments: step forward, but they didn"t solve anything. Basically, the alleged crimes were performed before the criminal code was amended. Compromises the legal rights of older gay men.
