New Homophobia Policy Requires Quebec Government To Eliminate Heterosexism And Homophobia From Society
A new policy, entitled Québec Policy Against Homophobia, announced last month by Quebec’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Kathleen Weil requires the government of Quebec to eradicate all forms of homophobia and heterosexism from society by normalising homosexuality in society, and acting to stop criticism against “lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgenders.”
Discussing the objectives of the policy in a written introduction, the Premier of Quebec Jean Charest states “An inclusive society such as ours must take the necessary steps to combat homophobic attitudes and behavior patterns and move towards full acceptance of sexual diversity,” before speaking about to do this they need to set “.. out the government’s goal of removing all the obstacles to full recognition of the social equality of the sexual minorities, at all levels of society.” Indicating a key element in achieving this is for heterosexism to be wiped out as the “affirmation of heterosexuality as a social norm or the highest form of sexual orientation”, the policy also points to the narrow views and prejudices that exist, and the need for these to be combated.
Speaking about the new policy, Weil said the new direction that they were taking acted to show “once again, that Quebec society is a leader in the field of sexual minority rights”, something which refers to Quebec being the first jurisdiction in North America in 1977 to amend its human rights and freedom charter to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Quebec have also acted to maintain this progressive tradition by amending their criminal code to not only include sexual orientation as a factor in hate crimes, but also including hate propaganda, and in 2005 legalized same sex marriage.
As would be expected with a policy as LGBT friendly as this, there has been some criticism especially from some religious groups including the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission whose leader, Gary Cass said such policies meant “Christians are singled out for prosecution, with threats, imprisonment and fines simply for refusing to stop doing what Christ commands: proclaiming the truth.”.
Weil, however, does not believe such criticisms are justified and that they only act to reinforce the need for such policies to make sure that sexual minorities are accepted as equal, something which is key to this particular document which has four key guidelines:
* Recognize the realities faced by sexual minority members
* Promote respect for the rights of sexual minority members
* Promote wellbeing for sexual minorities
* Ensure a concerted approach by government authorities and institutions
One element related to the last guideline which has caused further reaction to the policy is the role that schools should play a key role in retraining the population about sexual minorities. Speaking to LifeSiteNews, Georges Buscemi, president of Campaign Quebec-Vie, a Quebec pro-life group spoke of his concering about how it would impose homosexuality training on children. Adding to this he pointed to the impact it would have on religious institutions saying “I could see this being the beginning of the end of religious freedom in the sense that if a church, for example, is offering a service, for example marriage, and is not tailoring the service to the needs of a homosexual, then it could be sanctioned for not doing that.”
Via WND.
