Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights are some of the most extensive in the world. Same-sex sexual activity, in private between consenting adults, was decriminalized in Canada on June 27, 1969, when the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69 (also known as Bill C-150) was brought into force upon royal assent. In a landmark decision in 1995, Egan v Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada held that sexual orientation is constitutionally protected under the equality clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Egan v. Canada, 2 SCR 513 at 528. In 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world, and the first in the Americas, that legalized same-sex marriage. In 2022, Canada was the third country in the world, and the first in North America, that statutorily banned conversion therapy nationwide for both minors and adults, and made it a crime to subject anyone to it, as defined by statutory law in the Criminal Code.
Canada was referred to as the most gay-friendly country in the world, when it was ranked first (indicating least dangerous) in Asher & Lyric's LGBTQ+ Danger Index in 2023. It was also ranked first in the Gay Travel Index chart in 2024, and ninth in the Equaldex Equality Index in 2024. The country's largest cities feature their own gay areas and communities, such as Toronto's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, Montreal's Gay Village commercial district, Vancouver's Davie Village and Ottawa's Bank Street Gay Village. Every summer, Canada's LGBTQ community celebrates pride in all major cities, with many political figures from the federal, provincial and municipal scenes.
In recent decades, Canada went through some major legal shifts in support of LGBTQ rights (e.g., decriminalization, anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, gay marriage, homoparentality, blood donations, transgender rights and outlawing of conversion therapies). The 2020 Pew Research showed that 85% of Canada's general population (92% among Canadians aged between 18 and 29) had favoured social acceptance of homosexuality, up from 80% in 2013. Likewise, polls in June 2013 had shown an increase in the Canadian population's point of view, with a vast majority of Canadians giving their blessing to same-sex marriage, which was made available to all throughout Canada in 2005. The polls had also revealed that 70% of Canada's population had agreed that "same-sex couples should have the same rights to adopt children as heterosexual couples do," and that 76% had also agreed that "same-sex couples are just as likely as other parents to successfully raise children". By 2020, 91.8% of those surveyed in a poll commissioned by the Privy Council Office said they would be "comfortable" if a next-door neighbour was gay, lesbian or bisexual and that 87.6% said they would be "comfortable" if a neighbour was a transgender person.
History
Transgender people and cross-dressing practices have been recorded and documented in Canada for centuries. Different Indigenous groups have had their own traditions and terms to refer to transgender people, gender variance or sexual identity. These First Nations had perceptions towards gender and sexuality which differed significantly to that of the Western world. Many transgender people in these traditional roles were in positions of reverence, where they acted as caretakers of children who had lost their families, spiritual healers and warriors in battle. The Cree term napêw iskwêwisêhot refers to people who are assigned male at birth but act, dress and behave as female, while the term iskwêw ka napêwayat has the opposite meaning, that being a person assigned female at birth but acts and behaves as male. Similarly, the Ktunaxa titqattek describes women who take on roles traditionally characterized as masculine, including hunting and warfare. The Blackfoot term aakíí'skassi (meaning "acts like a woman"; also spelt a'yai-kik-ahsi) describes men who dress as women and typically perform chores and activities associated with women, such as basket weaving and pottery making. Many other Indigenous groups recognise similar terms: the Inuit sipiniq (ᓯᐱᓂᖅ), the Assiniboine wįktą, the Tlingit gatxan, and the Tsimshian kanâ'ts. Among the Ojibwe, male-to-female individuals are known as ikwekaazo, which literally translates to "men who chose to function as women", whereas female-to-male individuals are known as ininiikaazo. The European colonialists would describe such individuals as "homosexuals", "a curious compound of man and woman", or "berdache", meaning a catamite or a male prostitute. The term is now considered offensive and outdated. Following colonisation and the spread of Christianity by religious missionaries, many of these traditions began to die out. Transgender individuals were furthermore forced and assimilated into Europe-centric culture, and even among the Indigenous peoples perceptions began to change. In the early 1990s, Indigenous groups sought to reclaim many of their customs and traditions. LGBTQ Indigenous groups proposed the term "two-spirit" to refer to a traditional and cultural "third gender". In modern times, two-spirit is frequently used by First Nations groups to refer to people who embody these gender traits, and is occasionally used to reference the entire Indigenous LGBTQ community. As such, the terms LGBT2S or LGBTQ2S are increasingly used, with the 2S denoting two-spirited people; sometimes, this is denoted simply as 2, as in LGBTQ2. Records of homosexuality and same-sex relations also exist, notably among the Mi'kmaq, where the common phrase Geenumu Gessalagee, which translates to "he loves men", is used to refer to such individuals.
During the British North American era, sexual activity between men was a capital crime. However, there is no surviving record of any executions; political figures were reluctant to enforce the law. The death penalty was eventually repealed, though a broader law involving gross indecency between men was often enforced in the late 19th century. During the early to mid 20th-century, the law often portrayed homosexual men as sex offenders, including the court case of Everett George Klippert. He admitted to having sex with multiple men, which resulted in his life imprisonment. Same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults was soon decriminalized in 1969 as a result of legislation introduced in 1967, with then-Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada Pierre Trudeau who eventually became the 15th Prime Minister of Canada and famously commented, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."
Up until 1973, homosexuality was considered to be a mental illness. Many treatments were used to cure people of their homosexual orientation, including electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and conversion therapies. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality is not a mental illness. As a result, homosexuality was withdrawn from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM), which is the diagnostic reference guide used by all health and social services professionals in North America. In 1999, the American Psychological Association acknowledged in its code of ethics that to treat homosexuality as a psychological problem, a sexual deviance, or a form of psychopathology is unethical.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Ontario in 2003, and was already legalized in eight of ten provinces and one of three territories when, on July 20, 2005, Canada became the first country outside Europe and the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide after the enactment of the federal Civil Marriage Act. Likewise, same-sex adoption was legalized in all provinces and territories under varying rules. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in employment, housing and public and private accommodations is now prohibited by all provinces and territories, as well as the federal government. Transgender people are now able to change their legal gender in all provinces and territories under varying rules.
Constitutional framework
Legal and equality rights
The Constitution of Canada does not explicitly grant or deny any right to LGBTQ people, however the Supreme Court of Canada has held that the open-ended wording of section 15 of the Charter protects LGBTQ people from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Subsection 15(1) reads:
Section 15(1) was written so as to protect against discrimination generally, with the enumerated grounds of prohibited discrimination, such race and sex, being examples of prohibited grounds, rather than a closed list. In its landmark ruling in 1995 in the case of Egan v. Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that sexual orientation was included within the bounds of section 15, as an analogous ground. Individuals were therefore granted equal protection against discrimination on the basis of that ground. The concepts of sex and physical disability in s. 15 have been interpreted to include transsexuality and HIV/STDs (see discussion below).Walter S. Tarnopolsky, William F. Pentney & John D. Gardner (eds.), Discrimination and the Law, (Thomson, Scarborough, Ontario, 2004) page 7A-21 (Discrimination) (2003-Rel. 7) As articulated, and reaffirmed in 2008, "the promotion of equality entails the promotion of a society in which all are secure in the knowledge that they are recognized at law as human beings equally deserving of concern, respect and consideration".
Section 15 applies to all laws and government institutions in Canada, including law enforcement authorities, but the Charter does not grant rights against the private sector. Instead, a complaint against a business would be brought under the applicable federal or provincial human rights statute. For example, a discrimination complaint against a restaurant would generally fall under provincial anti-discrimination legislation and not the Charter. However, the Charter is part of the Constitution and therefore is part of the supreme law of the land. Courts must interpret statutes consistently with the Charter, including human rights laws.Constitution Act, 1982, s. 52(1) In private litigation, including human rights cases, "courts should, from time to time, re-evaluate the consistency of the common law with evolving societal expectations through the lens of Charter values". Equality rights under the Charter therefore will provide guidance for the interpretation of equality rights set out in human rights laws.
In its 1998 decision in Vriend v Alberta, the Supreme Court found the failure of the provincial legislature to include sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination in its human rights law was itself a violation of section 15 Charter rights. As of 2017, all provinces, territories, and the federal government explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited grounds of discrimination in their human rights acts.
Reasonable limits The entire Charter is also subject to a general limit in section 1 that allows "such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society." The Oakes Test sets out the Supreme Court of Canada's interpretation of this exception. This analysis may consider conflicting Charter rights. For example, the right to equality based on sexual orientation under section 15 may be limited by the freedom of religion under section 2, and vice versa. It may also be limited by the right to denominational (religious) schools under Section 93 of the Constitution.
Enforcement mechanism In the last decades, the rights of LGBTQ Canadians were largely enhanced due to several court decisions decided under Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (), which was included in the Constitution of Canada in 1982, and came into force in 1985.