The federal Charter of Rights and most provinces prohibit anti-gay discrimination. Canada protects refugees who flee sexual-orientation discrimination, and homosexuals can seek immigrant status for a foreign lover. The military accepts gays for service. Gay-bashers face stiffer than usual sentences. In British Columbia, socialized medical coverage pays a portion of transsexual surgery.
Lesbians create the modern movement.
When militant gay liberation organizations scorned women's issues in the early 1970s, a demoralized minority of lesbian activists became separatists. They organized effective women's caucuses promoting gay and race issues as well as feminism. Their hard work and class solidarity won the rank and file in their unions to the defense of gay demands. Whole sections of the NDP enthusiastically fought for laws extending gay rights. This solid progress in the unions laid the foundation for stunning change in society as a whole.