One example, cites Cossman, is the recent constitutional case brought before the Supreme Court by the Little Sisters bookstore in British Columbia against Canada Customs' seizure of gay material. Cossman says that for the last 10 years, gays and lesbians have been asking the courts to treat them equally but now these same groups are, in effect, saying that they want to be treated differently. You can't have it both ways. The Little Sisters case was all about freedom of expression, says Cossman.
Cases based on equality tend to win while cases based on freedoms tend to lose.
Cossman says that gays and lesbians had been doing very well before the Little Sisters bookstore case came along. The bookstore argued that the framework for obscenity laws shouldn't apply to gay and lesbian material, especially in the areas of male violence against women. Cossman's research will be released in late 2001. Michah Rynor is a news services officer with the Department of Public Affairs.