News
Quebec Declares War!
Quebec Declares War!
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Homophobia is the Target
by Ric Kasini Kadour
In a move that in the U.S. would be considered a great leap in understanding and support for lgbtqs, representatives of Fondation Émergence, which receives funding from several levels of the Canadian government from local to federal, proclaimed June 2nd to be the second annual National Day Against Homophobia.
The theme of this year's campaign is Declaration of War on Homophobia. Posters show either a man or a woman dressed in camouflage making a fist and holding a rose.
"This day is a privileged movement for students to talk about the facts of homosexuality, for employers to establish programs at work, for the media to present stories and reports on homophobia, for public officials to proclaim the first Wednesday in June a Day Against Homophobia, for individuals and organizations to take the initiative, for a symbolic gesture," the group explains.
During a press conference at Sky Bar in Montreal's gay village, the group outlined a media and poster campaign, along with a day of events to include a round table of community activists, journalists, and academics, a dinner in honor of Senator Laurier La Pierre and a 'Solidarity Cocktail Party' later in the evening.
Fondation Émergence hopes to "show the harmful effects of homophobia; fight homophobia wherever it is found; work towards the inclusion of homosexuals in society; block the effects of homophobia, especially suicide; validate the contribution of gays and lesbians in society; promote harmonious relationships among all people; and work together with others interested in personal rights and liberty."
The campaign is asking the people of Quebec to look at homophobia the way people look at racism - as an evil the end of whose time has come, as something that has no place in a just society. In the end, they will prevail not because of the forcefulness of their argument or the nature of their culture, but because of the righteousness of their position - and their willingness to advance it.
The question is, then, can we in America learn from their example?
In the United States, few, if any, organizations address homophobia as directly as Fondation Émergence. Quebec differs from the United States when it comes to the struggles of gay and lesbian people. Canada, in general, is much more engaged, at home and abroad, on human rights issues. At the forefront of the national dialogue on human rights is Quebec, where the provincial government added sexual orientation to their Charter of Rights in 1977.
"One difference is the importance you give in the United States to the individual over the collective," said Pierre Blain, coordinator of the National Day Against Homophobia. "For us, the collective is very important. Human rights are not individual, they're collective."
Another significant difference is the government's role in promoting multiculturalism. Fondation Émergence receives funding from city, provincial, and federal governments. Sexual minority issues are treated the same as gender and racial minority issues.
"There are special programs to build better relations between citizens in society because we have multiculturalism," said Blain. "That means everybody comes from different perspectives. If they come from different perspectives they have a different point of view. We have special programs to help everybody understand."
Like racism for people of color and sexism for women, homophobia is a concept put forward by social theorists to explain why gay men and lesbians are oppressed by society. Fondation Émergence defines individual homophobia as "an attitude, a feeling, a disease, and a wrongheaded aversion to homosexuals or homosexuality in general." In a society, the group says, homophobia is the systematic denial of the existence of queer people, the refusal to allow queer people equal access to the protections and benefits of government, and the use of law and public policy to deny queer people rights and liberties.
Discriminating in employment and housing, differentially enforcing sodomy laws, permitting bullying in schools, public health departments failing to gather data on queer people, and violence against queer people are all examples of homophobia. Heterosexual organizations are not the only perpetrators of homophobia, however. Gay organizations that malign or hide portions of the queer community they find unacceptable - people whose gender or sexual expression fails to conform to a narrow standard - also promote homophobia.
In 2003, Fondation Émergence held the first annual National Day Against Homophobia. Last year's theme, 'Shocking? Yes, to a Homphobe,' showed two hockey players kissing and two women dressed as brides. Other campaigns have included: 'Let Me Be Happy' which targeted the families of young gay and lesbian people and 'You Cannot Catch It' which promoted acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the straight community.
Ric Kasini Kadour is a freelance writer and researcher who lives in Shoreham and spends a significant amount of time in Montreal.