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Opening the Door to 2SLGBTQI+ Hidden Histories

Love in a Dangerous Time: Teacher Guide

Support your students as they learn about the historical significance of the LGBT Purge and the resilience of 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada.

Monochromatic image in rainbow colours of a gay rights protest in Ottawa. Partially obscured.

Photo: Jearld Moldenhauer

From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Government of Canada systematically investigated, harassed and fired 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the federal public service under the guise of national security. This guide equips educators with the tools to examine the historical significance of the struggles and resilience of 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canadian society.

Teacher Guide

The systematic discrimination of 2SLGBTQI+ individuals from the 1950s to the 1990s has come to be called the LGBT Purge. The story of the LGBT Purge is complex, interwoven with many other movements and events spanning multiple decades. The Teacher Guide is one aspect of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ responsibility to share the story Canada's LGBT Purge.

Using the Historical Thinking Concepts, embedded in many social studies curricula across Canada, students examine the historical significance of this event and its impacts on the broader Canadian society.

Lessons from this guide have two elements: detailed instructions for educators and printable backgrounders that include profiles and are designed to build a holistic understanding of the history surrounding the LGBT Purge. Each lesson provides the opportunity to explore themes such as colonization, the Cold War, systemic discrimination, bias, workplace discrimination, power structures and intersecting rights.

Each lesson references one or more backgrounder documents. 

Lesson Summaries

Collage in monochromatic red of three images of Indigenous people from various time periods. The top left image is two Indigenous people from the late 1800s. The bottom-left image is a Two-Spirit woman. The image on the right is a Two-Spirit powwow.
Photos: 1. Courtesy by Dr. James Brust, photograph by John H. Fouch; 2. Ruth Kivilahti; 3. Sadie Phoenix Lavoie

Lesson One:
Indigenous 2SLGBTQI+ Pre‐ and Post‐Colonization

This lesson explores the collision of European and Indigenous ideas about gender and sexuality and the way those beliefs were imposed through the process of colonization.

Collage in monochromatic orange of three images. The top left image is Douglas Sanders, a white gay activist man. The top right image is an atomic bomb explosion. The bottom image is a gay rights protest.
Photos: 1. City of Vancouver Archives, 2018-020.2751; 2. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, public domain; 3. Jearld Moldenhauer

Lesson Two:
Origin and Othering

This lesson examines the historical context, laws and systems that allowed for the systemic discrimination of victims of the LGBT Purge and broader 2SLGBTQI+ communities.

Collage in monochromatic green of three images of people. The image on the left is a female impersonator from the 1920s. The top right image is a white man speaking in a mic. The bottom right image is a white man in his RCMP uniform.
Photos: Nova Scotia Archives, public domain; 2. Gerald Hannon, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives; 3. RCMP-GRC, supplied by Elenore Sturko

Lesson Three:
Fear and Prejudice

Using primary source documents and stories from survivors, students will examine the laws, policies and practices which led to the targeted and intentional purging of 2SLGBTQI+ members in the military, RCMP and civil service.

Collage in monochromatic blue of three images of people. The top left image is a white man in military uniform. The bottom left image is a white male couple holding hands sitting on a cement structure outside of a building. The image on the right is a white woman at a gay rights protest holding a sign in front of her that reads “Lesbians Rights Now.”
Photos: 1. Courtesy of Pam Verney; 2. The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives; 3. Doug Nicholson, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives

Lesson Four:
Resistance and Demanding Change

This lesson examines how collective resistance and demands for change from victims of the LGBT Purge and their allies slowly brought change to not only the survivors but the broader 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada.

Collage in monochromatic purple of three images of individual people. The image on the left is a white woman in military uniform. The top right image is a painting of a Black man. The bottom right image is a white trans woman in military uniform in front of a mic.
Photos: 1. Department of National Defence, supplied by Michelle Douglas; 2. The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives, National Portrait Collection, portrait by Mark Reid; 3. Department of National Defence, CAF Ombudsman

Lesson Five:
Resilience and Joy

This lesson goes through a brief history of Pride and showcases how 2SLGBTQI+ groups and individuals organized to demand an apology and compensation for the harm of the LGBT Purge. There are examples of heroic 2SLGBTQI+ people and events, and examples of survivors of the LGBT Purge.

Dive Deeper

The LGBT Purge

We invite you to explore this resource guide as a starting point to learning more about the LGBT Purge, a decades‐long systemic targeting of LGBT members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the federal public service.

Explore resource guide
A large group of people dressed in T-shirts and seventies-style flared pants, stand together holding signs with messages such as “Out of the Closet,” “Gay is Good” and “Repeal Anti-Gay Laws.”

Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge

January 31, 2025 to early 2026

From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Government of Canada systematically investigated, harassed and fired 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the federal public service destroying careers, ruining lives and inflicting psychological damage on the community.

Exhibition details
A large group of protestors march through a city while two uniformed RCMP officers keep watch. In this black-and-white image, the protestors' signs and banners call for an end to discriminatory practices against members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

Love in a Dangerous Time: Pop‐up exhibition

Learn how 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and federal civil service were investigated, interrogated and removed from their jobs.

Travelling exhibition details
A group of people sitting on benches and standing in a dark wood panelled room. They are clapping and smiling.

This publication, created to complement the Museum’s exhibition Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge, contains stories of this injustice and the activists who fought to change Canada. These stories also seek to generate new conversations, connecting the past to present issues.

Explore Publication
The "Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada's LGBT Purge" catalogue cover with RCMP officers at the forefront and a multi-coloured banner with "Reflections on queer history and why it matters today"

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