Pop-up Exhibition: Love in a Dangerous Time
Rental fee: Free to Canadian venues until August 2025
Space requirements: 500 square feet
Tags:
About the exhibition
This pop‐up exhibition speaks to decades of human rights violations against 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians who wanted to serve their country and the brave activists who fought back. It is designed to educate and inspire Canadians to help create a future in which the rights of all 2SLGBTQI+ people are respected.
From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Government of Canada investigated, harassed and expelled 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP and federal public service during what came to be known as “the Purge.” Thousands of careers and lives were destroyed through this sweeping national policy, which came to be known as the LGBT Purge. But 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians led political and legal campaigns to change the policy and ensure protection under Canadian human rights law.
Some of their stories are captured in the Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge pop‐up exhibition.
In 2016, Purge survivors launched a class action suit that resulted in a historic settlement in 2018. That large settlement established the LGBT Purge Fund, which worked with the Museum to develop Love in a Dangerous Time. The aim is to raise awareness of this little‐known history and to inspire new generations to rise to today’s challenges.
This travelling exhibition is a precursor to a much larger exhibition, which opens in 2025 at the national museum in Winnipeg.
The pop‐up exhibition consists of three square pods that contain images and text elements, as well as a bilingual video.
Partners
Love in a Dangerous Time is a gift from the victims of the LGBT Purge, delivered in partnership with the LGBT Purge Fund.
In 2016, survivors of the LGBT Purge launched a nation‐wide class action lawsuit against the Canadian government and a historic settlement was reached in June 2018. The settlement allocated between $15 and $25 million for “reconciliation and memorialization measures”. These funds symbolically represent compensation for the suffering of victims of the LGBT Purge who did not live long enough to be eligible to receive individual compensation under the settlement. We hope that this exhibition will be a fitting tribute to their lives and legacy.
Venues will be added to the official tour schedule once dates are finalized.
- Central Library -, Calgary Public Library (Calgary, Alberta): August 26,2024 -– September 23, 2024
- MacEwan University (Edmonton, Alberta): October 7, 2024 – November 8, 2024
More information
Contact details
Brodie Sanderson (he/him)
- Manager, Production and Delivery
Canadian Museum for Human Rights - 204-289-2042
- travellingexhibitions@humanrights.ca