LGBT History in Canada Trivia Quiz

Answer: Death penalty

This was the first criminal trial for the crime of homosexuality in New France. A military drummer was found guilty of sodomy and sentenced to hang. Jesuit priests intervened and the man (whose name is unknown) was given a choice. His sentence would be commuted if he accepted a new position - as executioner for the colony.

He accepted the offer. According to all the information available about the trial, only this unnamed man was placed on trial, and so the thought is that his partner was probably a First Nations man. First Nations individuals were not subject to French religious law and so his partner would not have been placed on trial with the military man.

Answer: Molly Wood

Alexander Wood, a merchant and magistrate, was investigating a rape case in 1810. A woman who claimed to have been raped, did not know who her attacker was but did state that she scratched the genitals of her attacker. Wood inspected the genitals of a number of suspects in order to try and find the attacker. It was suggested that the rape did not happen, the victim did not exist, and that Wood had made the whole thing up in order to satisfy his homosexual urges. There was no evidence that Wood acted inappropriately; however, he was ridiculed and given the nickname "Molly Wood." At the time, "Molly" was a derogatory term for homosexual men.

Years later, Wood purchased land that was given the nickname "Molly Wood's Bush" and this area is now part of Toronto's gay village. In 2005, the business association for the area erected a statue of Alexander Wood and a beer was named for him. A play based on Wood's life was launched in 1994 called "Molly Wood".

Answer: Fruit machine

Frank Robert Wake is responsible for the development of a machine used to try and identify gay men. This homosexuality test was named after the term "fruit", derogatorily used to refer to gay men. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the military and the civil service all used the machine to try and identify and then fire gay men. The machine was similar to a dentist chair. An individual would sit in it and then look into a camera that would display all kinds of images, ranging in explicitness. The response to the pictures would be monitored, with the assumption being that pupil dilation would indicate homosexuality. The machine was marketed as measuring stress, which enabled the various organizations to use it. Once it was known what it was used for, people stopped signing up to participate in the test.

The idea was to try and fire all gay men from the various organizations that used the device and a substantial number of people were indeed fired. By the time the test was no longer used, the RCMP had files on nine thousand people. A 2018 documentary called "The Fruit Machine" was made about the impact on people who were affected by the test.

Answer: Toronto

WorldPride was a massive event in Toronto. Opening festivities took place at Nathan Phillips Square and included performances by Melissa Etheridge and Deborah Cox. There was an international human rights conference and a variety of other events throughout the celebration that took place from June 20 to June 29, 2014.

There were three marches that took place; there was a Trans march, a Dyke march and the Pride parade. Almost three hundred floats took place in the Pride parade and approximately twelve thousand participants registered to be a part of the parade.

There were so many floats and participants that the parade took more than five hours, making it one of the longest parades in Toronto's history. There were numerous free concerts that took place in Toronto's gay village and a closing ceremony that included entertainment from Tegan and Sara, Robin S and CeCe Peniston.

Answer: Everett George Klippert

Klippert was a mechanic from Saskatchewan who was working in the Northwest Territories. He was picked up on suspicion of arson and while in custody, admitted to having consensual sexual relations with more than one man. At the time this was still considered illegal and Klippert was charged with and found guilty of gross indecency.

He was labelled a dangerous sexual offender and imprisoned. This was the second time Klippert was jailed for the same offence. He was the last person in Canada to be imprisoned before homosexual acts were decriminalized and it was his case and appeal that helped to make this change. Klippert's records were expunged by order of the Parole Board of Canada in November 2020.

Answer: 1969

The Criminal Law Amendment Act (Bill C-150) was passed in 1969. This Act decriminalized same-sex sexual acts and was passed by Pierre Trudeau, who was the Attorney General and Justice Minister of Canada at the time. He made the famous statement "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."

The Criminal Law Amendment Act received Royal Assent on June 27th, 1969, which was one day before the infamous Stonewall Inn raid that took place in Canada's neighbour to the South, in New York City. The Stonewall Inn raid, which targeted the gay community, resulted in a series of riots by members of the gay community in Greenwich Village.

The Trudeau family continued their support of equality for individuals of the LGBT community with Justin Trudeau who, in 2017, offered an apology to individuals of that community who had been subject to "state-sponsored, systemic oppression and rejection".

Answer: Ontario

In 2013, Kathleen Wynne became the twenty-fifth premier of the province of Ontario, making her the highest ranking LGBT political official in North America. As leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario, she remained in office until 2018 when she was defeated. Wynne came out as a lesbian at the age of thirty-seven and married her second spouse, Jane Rounthwaite, in 2005. Wynne has three children with her first spouse, Phil Cowperthwaite.

Richard Hatfield, of New Brunswick, was a gay male who was Premier of New Brunswick from 1970 to 1987 but he was not openly gay while in office. It was an open secret that he was gay and his last years in office were plagued with scandal about his personal life.

Answer: The Brunswick Four

In January 1974, four lesbians sang a song at amateur night at a beer hall called the Brunswick House in Toronto. That song was called "I Enjoy Being A Dyke" and was a parody of a song from the musical "Flower Drum Song." The owner of the bar took exception to the lyrics of the song and the four women were asked to leave, which they refused to do. As a result, they were arrested although they were not charged with anything. The four women did report that they were harassed by the police officers and returned to the bar to try and find witnesses to corroborate their stories. They were once again met by police and this time three of the women were charged. The women had evidence in the form of injuries of their harassment and the arresting officers were charged; however, the police had switched their name badges and hats and so the women couldn't properly identify the officers. The women were outraged at their treatment and they received quite a bit of press coverage as a result of the incident.

This was one of the first times a topic involving gays or lesbians received extensive press coverage and is said to be a defining moment in a more militant LGBT movement in Canada.

Answer: Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first head of Canadian government to march in a Pride parade. He joined the 2016 Pride parade in Toronto as well as the 2017 parade in the same city and the Vancouver Pride parade in 2018 and 2019. He's been commended for doing so; however, he's also been criticized for not doing enough to move forward equality for the LGBT community.

Despite his appearance at these events and offering an apology to the community for the injustices they've faced, there are promises he's made that he hasn't kept. One example is the legality around sexually active gay men giving blood.

As of December 2021, only gay men who have not been sexually active within a three-month period are eligible to donate blood. There are calls for changes to this discriminatory practice.

Answer: Prince Edward Island & Alberta

On July 20, 2005, the federal government of Canada made same-sex marriage legal across Canada. In doing so, Canada became the fourth country in the world to do so. Since then, all provinces and territories recognize same-sex marriage. Some provinces moved to legalize same-sex marriage before this date. Ontario was the first to do so on June 10, 2003, followed closely by British Columbia in July of the same year. Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to legalize same-sex marriage. Between 2003 and July 2005, Nunavut and all other provinces except for Prince Edward Island and Alberta made this type of union legal. On July 20, 2005, with the federal government legalization of same-sex marriage, Prince Edward Island, Alberta and the two remaining territories (Yukon and Northwest Territories) legalized same-sex union.