A celebration of LGBTQ artists who changed Canada for the better.
June of 1969 was a revolutionary moment for queer rights. 50 years later, we're celebrating Canadian artists who have shaped our country's rich LGBTQ history.
1969 is often regarded as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement - but not because it was the month Canada relaxed its laws around homosexuality. If anything, charges escalated in the years that followed that alleged "decriminalization." Still, it marked a shift, and the movement started picking up significant steam - substantially influenced in this country by our American siblings rioting at the Stonewall Inn that same month. By October of 1969, Canada saw its first gay student organization (the University of Toronto Homophile Association), and by the end of 1970 early "gay liberation" groups began appearing (the Community Homophile Association of Toronto, the Front de libération homosexuel in Montreal, the Gay Alliance Toward Equality in Vancouver and Gays of Ottawa). But it wasn't just student and activist groups rising up to make Canada a safer place for LGBTQ folks - it was also our artists.
In honour of that pivotal year, CBC Arts is celebrating 69 of the many, many LGBTQ artists who changed this country for the better - before, during and after 1969. And we're calling them Super Queeroes, because that's what they are. Collectively, they have given hope, courage and visibility to LGBTQ folks in this country, long before we got the respect we deserve from the state.
Among those included? Kent Monkman, Will Munro, kd lang, Xavier Dolan, Ellen Page, Peaches, Tegan & Sara, Dan Levy, Scott Thompson, Dionne Brand and Vivek Shraya.
