Family and Parental Rights
A Family is a Family
In addition to the long fight for marriage equality, same-sex couples also had to fight for equal rights as partners and as parents. While Canadian law may not have explicitly discriminated against LGBTQ couples, the silence was just as damaging—and the lack of legal provisions for same-sex couples affected the relationships themselves. Since marriage was considered between husband and wife, gay and lesbian partners were essentially treated as if they were single in legal matters. They had no rights as couples and had to fight to gain legal and medical benefits for their partners, such as partner inclusion in pension plans and hospital visitation rights.
Click to watch a televised public service announcement (PSA) by the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO), "In Sickness and in Health".
Click to watch an interview with Nancy Rosenberg (2004) as she discusses her pension case, CUPE, and discrimination against LGBTQ+ peoples in trying to access legal and medical benefits with relation to their partners.
Click to watch an interview with lawyer Michael Davenport, discussing Bill 167, the Act to Amend Ontario Statutes to Provide for the Equal Treatment of Persons in Spousal Relationships in Ontario. Davenport was the head of the Coalition for Lesbian and his involvement through the Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO).
Click to watch lawyer Susan Ursal explaining the history of Bill 167, An Act to Amend Ontario Statutes to Provide for the Equal Treatment of Persons in Spousal Relationships, in 1994 and the campaign for equal family rights in the LGBT community, including the right to adopt.
The Right to Adopt
Part of the fight for equal rights for same-sex couples was adoption. This included full adoption by both parents, as well as in cases where one person is the biological parent and their partner wishes to adopt the child as a co-parent. As the following videos show, same-sex couples faced various ordeals in not being legally recognized as partners and as parents, such as finding fertility clinics that would help them conceive, and living with the fear that their child could be taken away if something happened to their partner.
Click to watch a televised public service announcement (PSA) by the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO), "To Have and To Hold".
Click to watch an interview with Chris Higgens and Chris Phibbs on the Campaign for Equal Families, the defeat of Bill 167 in Ontario, and the same sex parents adoption case in Ontario.
Click to watch an interview with Mona Greenbaum as she discusses her own personal experience in starting a family in Quebec, from not being able to access a fertility clinic, leading into the Lesbian Mother's Association Civil Union bill in Quebec, and ending with all families being fully recognized by the Quebec government.