Formation | 1986 |
---|---|
Founder | Les McAfee |
Type | Nonprofit advocacy organization |
Purpose | LGBTQ research, education, awareness and legal advocacy |
Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Official language | English and French |
Executive Director | Helen Kennedy |
Revenue (2023) | $6.4 million [1] |
Expenses (2023) | $6.4 million [1] |
Staff (2024) | 40+ |
Website | egale |
Formerly called | Equality for Gays And Lesbians Everywhere |
Egale Canada is a Canadian charity founded in 1986 by Les McAfee to advance equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families, across Canada. [2]
The organization's current executive director is former Toronto politician Helen Kennedy. Past executive directors have included Gilles Marchildon, John Fisher and Kaj Hasselriis. [2] Helen Kennedy is the first woman to head the organization.
Egale is Canada's equivalent of the US' Human Rights Campaign and the UK's Stonewall.
Founded in 1986 by political activist Les McAfee, Egale Canada was incorporated as a federal not-for-profit organization in 1995, with a focus on education, advocacy, litigation and expert consultation. [3] [2]
The organization was initially named "Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere". As they extended their efforts to include bisexual and transgender issues, they felt that the acronym was not inclusive enough, and therefore changed the name from the acronym E.G.A.L.E. to simply "Egale" (égale being the French word for "equal") in 2001. [2] Egale Canada's partner organization, Egale Canada Human Rights Trust (ECHRT), was founded in 1995 as a charity dedicated to advancing LGBT human rights through education, research and community engagement. [3]
Egale Canada's work falls under four pillars: Research, Education, Awareness and Legal Advocacy. [1]
In 2007 Egale commissioned a survey of 3,700 high school students from across Canada in order to gain data on the situation of LGBT students in Canadian schools and gain insight into the level of homophobia and transphobia in schools. The final report, entitled Every Class in Every School, was released in 2011.[8] A decade later in 2021, Egale released a follow-up report -Still In Every Class In Every School [4] .
The early 2020s saw Egale release several research studies surrounding the experiences of 2SLGBTQI people in healthcare, mental healthcare, dementia, long-term care, retirement and more. These reports include:
Egale's 2023 report Working for Change: Understanding the Employment Experiences of Two Spirit, Trans, and Nonbinary People in Canada, examines the challenges Two Spirit, trans, and nonbinary People individuals face in employment, underemployment, and unemployment. The report explores workplace experiences, barriers to employment, and instances of discrimination and bias. While the findings reveal that there is still much progress to be made to achieve employment equity for 2STNB people, we also found that some participants encountered supportive and inclusive workplaces—offering hope for the future [10] .
Egale Canada specialize in three areas of education, training and learning: inclusive schools, training teachers and educators on creating schools more inclusive for 2SLGBTQI students [11] ; workplace inclusion, training corporate teams on creating inclusive places of employment [12] ; and international, working with partners around the world to deliver inclusion education [13] .
Egale launches multiple awareness campaigns every year that touch on various topics involving the LGBT community. In recent years these campaigns have included LGBT occasions of significance such as Trans Day of Visibility, Pride Season, Intersex Awareness Week and more.
They also create campaigns around specific topics such as their 2024 award-winning campaign [14] Help Us Remain which focused on raising awareness about the experiences of LGBT people living with dementia. [15]
Egale successfully lobbied the federal government to add "sexual orientation" to the Canadian Human Rights Act to protect lesbians, gays and bisexuals from discrimination; lent support to many provincial and territorial efforts to have equal rights enshrined in legislation across the country; lobbied the Government to introduce more severe penalties for those convicted of gay-bashing and other hate crimes; supported the addition of "sexual orientation" to the grounds covered by hate propaganda legislation; intervened in the Nixon case to support the rights of transgender people.
In Canada, it is currently legal to perform genital "normalizing" surgery on intersex infants and children who are too young to understand or provide consent. These surgeries are invasive, unnecessary, and irreversible, representing a profound violation of the bodily autonomy and dignity of intersex individuals.
In 2021, Egale, alongside intersex scholars and activists Morgan Holmes and Janik Bastien-Charlebois, filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to challenge the constitutionality of Criminal Code exemptions that allow intersex genital mutilation to remain legal. This case is known as Egale et al. v. Canada.
Promoting safe and inclusive school environments for 2SLGBTQI students is one of Egale’s core initiatives, achieved through the creation of resources and educational materials. However, this work is hindered when laws and policies prevent school staff from upholding gender-diverse students' rights to equality, safety, privacy, and self-determination. Some notable cases that Egale has been involved in include: CCLA v. New Brunswick, UR Pride v. Government of Saskatchewan et al., York Region District School Board v. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, and A.B. v. C.D.
Egale successfully lobbied for the introduction and passage of Bill C-23, which amended 68 federal statutes to provide same-sex couples with the same legal status as that of opposite-sex married couples. They also supported union activities and lobbied the federal government in support of equal employment benefits to those in same-sex relationships; coordinated coalitions of equality groups in cases on same-sex pension benefits and equal funeral leave for same-sex families.
Additionally, they have on two occasions challenged the legal definition of the word "spouse." The first instance was when the group intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada to challenge the opposite-sex definition of "spouse" in the Old Age Security Act (Egan v. Canada). Although the challenge was unsuccessful, it did set a unanimous precedent by which sexual orientation was henceforth entered into the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a grounds for protection from discrimination. The second challenge was successful, and revised the opposite-sex definition of "spouse" in Ontario's Family Law Act (M. v. H.) so that the right to common-law marriage extended to same-sex couples.
They also helped convince Statistics Canada to include same-sex families in the nationwide census, and worked with LEGIT to advance equal immigration rights for gays and lesbians.
Egale intervened to support efforts to have LGBT pride officially proclaimed in many cities; supported community initiatives in response to the Calgary bathhouse raids; decried the heavy-handed censorship practices of Canada Customs and helped Little Sisters Bookstore win their court case. Egale has also supported freedom of speech for people with anti-gay points of view, including Albertan pastor Stephen Boissoin, who was found guilty by the Alberta Human Rights Commission of exposing gays to hatred.[6] Part of the ruling was financial compensation paid to Egale as requested by the complainant Darren Lund (who is not homosexual), but Egale refused to accept the money.[7]
In 2023, Egale published an open letter [16] to the CTRC calling for the removal of the conservative news channel Fox News from the list of non-Canadian programming authorized for distribution in Canada, following Fox News host Tucker Carlson's comments after a mass shooting in Nashville that "the trans movement is targeting Christians, including with violence." [17]
Egale's operations and activities have been funded by a range of government agencies, corporations, non-profit organizations and individual donors. Notable funders include: [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]
Egale blamed the Conservative government for allegedly failing to help gay immigrants from countries that have anti-gay laws, such as Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Jordan, Mexico and Nicaragua. [23] As of 2017, 72 countries still criminalize LGBTQ activity. [24]
In 2005, the organization was criticized by some of Canada's gay press for failing to submit a brief, after indicating an intention to do so, to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights regarding the potential impact on LGBT communities of Bill C-2, a controversial piece of legislation that revised the age of sexual consent. Xtra! asserted that Egale was devoting so much time and effort to advocacy around same-sex marriage that it was missing the boat on other important issues. [25]
In 2009, Egale Canada presented Jaime Watt, a political strategist in the government of former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris, with its inaugural Leadership Award in honour of his role in supporting the provincial law that granted common-law marriage rights to same-sex couples. [26] The decision was denounced by some LGBT activists because of Watt's role in some other government policies that had been unpopular within the gay community. [27] [28]
LGBTQ is an initialism that stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer". It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual, non-heteroromantic, or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. LGBTQ+ adds a plus sign for "those who are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture or reflect their identity". Many further variations of the acronym exist, such as LGBT+, LGBTQIA+, and 2SLGBTQ+. The LGBT label is not universally agreed upon by everyone that it is generally intended to include. The variations GLBT and GLBTQ rearrange the letters in the acronym. In use since the late 1980s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for marginalized sexualities and gender identities. Some prefer the catch-all term queer.
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) is a LGBTQ+ rights organization.
ILGA-Europe is the European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. It is an advocacy group promoting the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people, at the European level. Its membership comprises more than 500 organisations from throughout Europe and Central Asia. The association enjoys consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council and participatory status at the Council of Europe.
Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are some of the most extensive in the world. Same-sex sexual activity, in private between consenting adults, was decriminalized in Canada on June 27, 1969, when the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69 was brought into force upon royal assent. In a landmark decision in 1995, Egan v Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada held that sexual orientation is constitutionally protected under the equality clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world, and the first in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage. In 2022, Canada was the third country in the world, and the first in North America, to fully ban conversion therapy nationwide for both minors and adults.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Cambodia face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Although same-sex sexual activity is legal in Cambodia, it provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Iceland rank among the highest in the world. Icelandic culture is generally tolerant towards homosexuality and transgender individuals, and Reykjavík has a visible LGBT community. Iceland ranked first on the Equaldex Equality Index in 2023, and second after Malta according to ILGA-Europe's 2024 LGBT rights ranking, indicating it is one of the safest nations for LGBT people in Europe. Conversion therapy in Iceland has been illegal since 2023.
Unitarian Universalism, as practiced by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), and the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC), is a non-Creedal and Liberal theological tradition and an LGBTQ affirming denomination.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Norway have the same legal rights as non-LGBT people. In 1981, Norway became one of the first countries in the world to enact an anti-discrimination law explicitly including sexual orientation. Same-sex marriage, adoption, and assisted insemination treatments for lesbian couples have been legal since 2009. In 2016, Norway became the fourth country in Europe to pass a law allowing the change of legal sex for transgender people based on self-determination. On 1 January 2024, conversion therapy became legally banned within Norway.
LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied social movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century. A commonly stated goal among these movements is social equality for LGBT people. Some have also focused on building LGBT communities or worked towards liberation for the broader society from biphobia, homophobia, and transphobia. LGBT movements organized today are made up of a wide range of political activism and cultural activity, including lobbying, street marches, social groups, media, art, and research. Sociologist Mary Bernstein writes: "For the lesbian and gay movement, then, cultural goals include challenging dominant constructions of masculinity and femininity, homophobia, and the primacy of the gendered heterosexual nuclear family (heteronormativity). Political goals include changing laws and policies in order to gain new rights, benefits, and protections from harm." Bernstein emphasizes that activists seek both types of goals in both the civil and political spheres.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) affirming denominations in Judaism are Jewish religious groups that welcome LGBT members and do not consider homosexuality to be a sin. They include both entire Jewish denominations, as well as individual synagogues. Some are composed mainly of non-LGBT members and also have specific programs to welcome LGBT people, while others are composed mainly of LGBT members.
Discrimination against non-binary people, people who do not identify exclusively as male or female, may occur in social, legal, or medical contexts.
Intersex civil society organizations have existed since at least the mid-1980s. They include peer support groups and advocacy organizations active on health and medical issues, human rights, legal recognition, and peer and family support. Some groups, including the earliest, were open to people with specific intersex traits, while others are open to people with many different kinds of intersex traits.
The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBT topics:
LGBT Foundation is a national charity based in Manchester with a wide portfolio of services. With a history dating back to 1975, it campaigns for a fair and equal society where all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people are able to reach their full potential. They support over 40,000 people directly every year, and a further 600,000 online. They provide direct services and resources to more LGBT people than any other charity of its kind in the UK.
LGBT ageing addresses issues and concerns related to the ageing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Older LGBT people are marginalised by: a) younger LGBT people, because of ageism; and b) by older age social networks because of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heteronormativity, heterosexism, prejudice and discrimination towards LGBT people.
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) than endosex people. According to a study done in Australia of Australian citizens with intersex conditions, participants labeled 'heterosexual' as the most popular single label with the rest being scattered among various other labels. According to another study, an estimated 8.5% to 20% experiencing gender dysphoria. Although many intersex people are heterosexual and cisgender, this overlap and "shared experiences of harm arising from dominant societal sex and gender norms" has led to intersex people often being included under the LGBT umbrella, with the acronym sometimes expanded to LGBTI. Some intersex activists and organisations have criticised this inclusion as distracting from intersex-specific issues such as involuntary medical interventions.
Queer erasure refers to the tendency to intentionally or unintentionally remove LGBT groups or people from record, or downplay their significance, which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.