Remember Our History.

In the past few years I have noticed a push towards pretending that gay relationships are and have always been, exactly like straight relationships in society. Not so fast, there seems to be this dismissive attitude towards the older gay generations and the struggles they went through. Society was not always this inclusive, you would only have to live in the wrong country for a year to understand what it was like. I don't want to dwell in the past but I don't want things smoothed over either just to make people feel less guilty about prejudiced thinking they once had. Like many gay people, I was happy to see Will and Grace come back, interesting enough they touched on this subject in one episode, focusing on the importance of remembering our past. ............................................. Today in our Parliament the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau will apologize to members of the LGBTQ community, specifically the older people who were persecuted for being gay. Yes I know this makes the younger people squirm but even in Canada you would be investigated and hunted down by the police if it was thought that you were gay. Your face would end up on the evening news and in the papers. You would lose your job, family and friends would abandon you, people would think of you as a pervert on the same level as drug dealers and thieves, you would be an outcast. Many people committed suicide once it was revealed that they were gay. ............................................. It is ironic to note that the past Justice Minister who stopped this from continuing was Pierre Trudeau, Justin's father, who would later go on to become Prime Minister as well. Pierre had a famous quote "the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation" which makes perfect sense to most people now but many at the time were horrified by the thought of two people enjoying sex without some sort of rules being applied. People spread rumors that Pierre was a homosexual to try and discredit him, even though he appears to always have been a ladies man. Along with the apology will be compensation for lost wages and expenses brought on by the persecution of these people, that is important I feel because it's not just an "oops sorry" it's a "we were really wrong". It is important for gay people to finally move into their rightful place in society, just as important however is not forgetting the people who suffered to get us here.