The Rights Code Of The United States - 1355 Words

Ever since 1965 when Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau said the historic words: â€Å"the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation,† Canada has been steadily increasing its acceptance of the LGBT+ community. LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, with the plus extending to those who are intersex and anyone who does not identify as straight (having sexual and/or romantic attraction to another gender) or cisgender (having one’s gender identity match the one in which they were assigned at birth), the two â€Å"norms† of our society. The country’s first strides in equality came in the arrest of Everett Klippert, a gay mechanic in the Northwest Territories, in 1967. This act brought a long series of protests that lead to several†¦show more content†¦Media has always been highly influential in our society; it’s carefully constructed in order to show certain values, beliefs and messages. When viewers are exposed to topics t hey have little experience or knowledge in, media can especially play a large role in shaping their own opinions. It has been shown that people who know a LGBT+ person in their lives are much more likely to be supportive of same-sex marriage and the community in general. In place of that, viewing characters in film or television can adequately supplement the empathy gained from personal experience. This is exemplified by Wilson Cruz, the actor of Rickie Vasquez, a gay character on the 1994 television series My So-Called Life: â€Å"...Vasquez was the first gay person that they knew and because of the light he shed on the issue...I think people took up the cause of LGBT rights...I know for many people the only LGBT people that they know are people that they meet on their television screens or at the movie theater.† Since then, the amount of programming featuring openly gay characters has steadily increased, and with it, people are gaining a better understanding of the issues t hey face. As the years progress, Canada is being exposed to greater diversity: both on the television screen and within its community. Canada is a multicultural mosaic that embraces and celebrates