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[The Sexuality Blog] Canada apologises for centuries of discrimination against indigenous LGBT persons

Canada

The government of Canada is showing the world that it is not enough to simply accept LGBT people and give them rights in 2017, if the world is not going to acknowledge the systematic torture, ostracization and discrimination that led to them needing such stringent protection of their rights in the first place. After several months of discussion with the country’s LGBT communities, the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who has proven himself time and again an ally of minorities) offered an official apology to the indigenous community in Canada, especially for the exclusion and ostracization LGBT people suffered during the ethnic cleansings of indigenous Canadian people and also during the First and Second World Wars and the subsequent cold wars.

Indigenous Canadian communities were far more progressive about sexuality before the advent of British and french colonialists in what would become Canada. These colonialist, driven by their christian faith sought to tear down what they considered perversion in the indigent communities, killing two-spirit persons and people who did not identify as heterosexual. Even after Canada gained independence, the hatred and suppression spread to migrant communities and during the world wars and subsequent cold war, LGBT persons were tortured and killed, they were forced into conversion therapy practices and used as guinea pigs for experimentation. The stories of these horrors have become a part of the history of LGBT person in the country and shiny new rights don’t change that.

Nigeria is yet to even fully deliberate on its homophobic present, let alone its history of suppressing sexual minorities. Hopefully this will might make them stop and take notice.

You can watch the full thing here.

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