Bill C-150 was passed on May 14th, 1969, one month before the Stonewall Riots, to effectively decriminalize “gross indecency” and “buggery”. An example of the glaring legal injustice of discrimination towards sexual orientation can be seen in the case of Everett George Klippert who received a life sentence for admitting to having had sex with a man in 1965.
For example, by December 21 st, 1967 then Minister of Justice Pierre Trudeau’s Bill C-150 was introduced to make considerable changes to the Criminal Code of Canada including the decriminalization of homosexuality and the age of consent for anal sex was set at twenty-one (lowered to eighteen in 1988). The militant assertion of gay rights over that six-day period of rioting culminated in the formation of an organized and radical gay liberation movement which sent shockwaves throughout North America.Ĭonditions in Canada however were slightly different. Primarily, on June 28th, 1969 violence broke out when gay men, lesbians and transgendered individuals fought the police during a routine raid on a popular gay club at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City. Various incidents of seminal importance to the gay liberation movement occurred in the United States which had significant impact on both countries. Homophobia existed in Canada during the same period and continues to the present, but the conditions and experiences of LGBTTQ people culminated under different social controls (See Gary Kinsman, The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation, Vancouver University of British Columbia Press, 2010). 1-2)Ĭarter’s accurate depiction of the homophobic culture in the United States must not be used as a guideline for the Canadian gay and lesbian experience however it is essential to understand the proximity of the United States and its pervasive channels for cultural dissemination. There were no openly gay policemen, public school teachers, doctors, or lawyers. When Hollywood made a film with a major homosexual character, the character was either killed or killed himself. No television show had any identifiable gay characters. Not one law – federal, state, or local – protected gay men or women from being fired or denied housing. Martins Press, 2004) that only a few decades ago things were very different for gay men and lesbians:Īt the end of the 1960s, homosexual sex was illegal in every state but Illinois. Author David Carter demonstrates in his book, Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution (New York St. Among those deemed successful were the integrationist civil rights movement, the women’s movement and the gay rights movement. It wasn't until 2013 that the British government granted a posthumous pardon to this computing pioneer and war hero.As history has shown, the social movements of the 1960s resulted in few lasting gains for those trying to change society. Two years later, he's believed to have killed himself by eating a cyanide-laced apple. He was arrested for "indecency" in 1952, pled guilty, and was punished via hormone injections that left him impotent. Despite this, Turing was open with his friends at King's College in Cambridge and pursued relationships with men beyond that circle of safety. While the societies of some of the other scientists on this list may have accepted their unorthodox lifestyles, or at least looked the other way, homosexuality was a crime in mid-century England.
He was also responsible for breaking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II, a feat highlighted in the 2014 film The Imitation Game. Alan Turing is the namesake behind the Turing machine, which is the basis for all computers. Even if you don't know his story, you know his work - you're using it right now.
Alan Turing's story might be the best known in the history of LGBT scientists, and the saddest.