Originally published in TEACH Magazine, 50th Anniversary of the Decriminalization of Homosexuality in Canada Special Issue, 2019
By Alex Newman
Fifty years ago, Canada passed amendments to a law to decriminalize homosexual activity. Although it was the height of the sexual revolution for women, the law was considered ground-breaking. Back then, only a handful of U.S. states had taken similar steps (and didn’t become legal nationwide until 2003). England’s 1967 law came with several qualifiers, just as in Canada. France made homosexuality legal by amending the penal code in 1791 during the French Revolution, and Italy followed a century later in 1890.
According to Equaldex, a collaborative LGBTQ+ knowledge base, upwards of 150 countries have legalized homosexual activity—India and Angola in the last eight months—leaving at least 45 that still treat homosexuality as a crime.
Alex Newman is a Toronto freelance writer and editor. Visit her website, alexnewmanwriter.com.
