Societal laws are never rewritten without a lot of people clamouring for change — as a pop-up exhibit on the history of gay rights in Canada shows.
Fifty years ago, this country’s politicians decriminalized homosexuality for consenting adults.
But a display at the Red Deer museum illustrates what a long, hard-fought battle it was to 1969, when former prime minister Pierre Trudeau famously declared the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.
And the fight isn’t over yet. The exhibit also tells of the hostility and homophobia many LGBTQ, inter-sex and two-spirited peoples are still encountering on a personal level.
The travelling Sex, Sin & 69 exhibit by Toronto-based inclusion advocacy organization Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, uses photos, archived articles and privately contributed memorabilia to recount some landmark moments for the movement.
Museum-goers who don’t realize how much pushing was required will see evidence of the 1960s-era protests, the 1981 Edmonton bathhouse raid, criticisms of government inaction on AIDS, underground lobbying by magazines like The Body Politic, and the two-decade lawsuit by Vancouver’s Little Sisters bookstore against Canada Customs over what’s considered obscene.
Visitors with smartphones can scan QR codes to get fuller background stories — a fortunate feature, since this pop-up exhibit had to be housed in a particularly dim section of the Remarkable Red Deer exhibit.
Exhibits co-ordinator Kim Verrier believes museum-goers will get a more meaningful, complete experience if they come to see the film the exhibit is based on.
It will be shown at the museum on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.
Sex, Sin & 69 will run until Sept. 15.