News release details
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is celebrating Pride with free admission on June 1 as part of its Free First Sundays offer. Pride parade marchers and festival goers can enjoy free admission to the Museum from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and explore stories of queer resistance, resilience and strength.
Exhibition on now: Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge
The CMHR’s powerful new exhibition Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge, created in partnership with the LGBT Purge Fund, shares the systematic persecution of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians from the 1950s to the 1990s. During this time, thousands of people in the Canadian military, RCMP and federal civil service had their careers stalled or ended because their sexual orientation or gender identity was considered a national security threat.
Love in a Dangerous Time is the largest exhibition on queer history and activism ever held at a Canadian museum,” said exhibition curator Scott de Groot. “It explores how 2SLGBTQI+ community members fought back, resisted discrimination, and collectively dismantled the Purge.”
A pop‐up version of Love in a Dangerous Time has opened in Washington, DC for WorldPride at the Embassy of Canada. The exhibit is open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., free of charge, at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. until September 5.
“Pride is not simply a party or celebration — it’s a commemoration of the struggle for queer freedom and 2SLGBTQI+ rights — a struggle that continues today,” said de Groot.
New Love in a Dangerous Time teacher guide
Created by CMHR’s educator in residence, Walter Cassidy, this free resource supports educators to discuss important 2SLGBTQI+ hidden histories like the LGBT Purge and how it relates to human rights challenges today.
“2SLGBTQI+ communities in this country are part of the rich fabric of Canada,” said Cassidy. “Our struggles, resilience, accomplishments and joy must be included in classrooms, regardless of what part of the country you live in, to make sure we don’t repeat injustices such as the LGBT Purge.”
The new teacher guide can be accessed free on humanrights.ca.
Free Film Screening of Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance
When: June 28, 6:30 p.m.– 9 p.m.
Where: Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Cost: Free with registration
Unflinching, bold, enraging, hopeful; Parade captures pivotal moments that sparked Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ movement, honouring the activists and elders whose resistance led to the rights we have today.
The free film screening will be followed by a panel discussion and Q and A with Albert McLeod, Connie Merasty, Myra Laramee, Robin Tyler, producer Justine Pimlott, and writer and director Noam Gonick.