Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the cover star of the January issue of Attitude, Europe’s biggest gay lifestyle magazine.
The profile comes after he issued a tearful apology to members of the LGBTQ community for actions taken by the government against thousands of workers in the military and public service during the Cold War.
In the interview, the magazine joins Trudeau at the inaugural ‘Canada Pride 2017’ in his hometown of Montreal.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the cover star for the January issue of Attitude, Europe’s biggest gay lifestyle magazine
In the interview, the magazine joins Trudeau at the inaugural ‘Canada Pride 2017’ in his hometown of Montreal
He told the magazine: ‘The LGBT+ community has become emblematic of the fight for human rights. The fact that so many people have gone for so long feeling that they had to be ashamed, or hide something about their core identity to fit into society is a lesson for everyone to push against.’
Trudeau said he finds it important to walk at Pride events because there’s ‘so much more to do’.
Trudeau also opened up about Canada’s aim to champion women’s and LGBT+ issues across the Commonwealth
‘The more that we are exposed to stories that reveal our own biases, the privileges we take for granted, that other people don’t have, the better we’ll be at standing up for other people’s rights and opportunities,’ he told Attitude.
Trudeau’s appearance on the magazine follows a lead of several UK politicians and notable figures, including Tony Blair, David Cameron and Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge.
He also opened up about Canada’s aim to champion women’s and LGBT+ issues across the Commonwealth.
‘There will always be small groups of people who have power, whether it’s religious groups, or political groups, who will protect that status quo and will resist change as it gets closer to them…but I trust people, I trust citizens, and I know that the direction that we need to move is in respectful ways, in meaningful ways [and] is something that we need to keep pushing,’ he said.
He urged leaders to have candid conversations, and to ‘give people a friendly nudge to move forward in the right direction’.
‘I think sometimes it takes friends, or allies, or partners, like another country leader, to say: ‘Give your people more credit than you have, and maybe the religious leaders don’t have the kind of impact that you think they have’,’ he said.
The profile comes after he issued a tearful apology to members of the LGBTQ community for actions taken by the government against thousands of workers in the military and public service during the Cold War
In November, Trudeau said in an emotional speech to Parliament that from the 1950s to the early 1990s, the federal government employed a campaign of oppression against members and suspected members of the LGBTQ communities.
The thinking of the day, he said, was that all non-heterosexual Canadians would automatically be at an increased risk of blackmail by Canada’s adversaries.
‘This is the devastating story of people who were branded criminals by the government – people who lost their livelihoods, and in some cases, their lives,’ Trudeau said.
‘These aren’t distant practices of governments long forgotten. This happened systematically, in Canada, with a timeline more recent than any of us would like to admit.’
Trudeau said the public service, the military, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spied on their own people, inside and outside of the workplaces.
He said Canadians were monitored for anything that could be construed as homosexual behavior, with community groups, bars, parks, and even people’s homes constantly under watch.
In November, Trudeau said in an emotional speech to Parliament that from the 1950s to the early 1990s, the federal government employed a campaign of oppression against members and suspected members of the LGBTQ communities
In his magazine profile, Trudeau urged leaders to have candid conversations, and to ‘give people a friendly nudge to move forward in the right direction’. He’s pictured above speaking in Parliament
He said when the government felt that enough evidence had accumulated, some suspects were taken to secret locations in the dark of night to be interrogated.
He said those who admitted they were gay were fired, discharged, or intimidated into resignation. The prime minister called it a witch hunt and a ‘collective shame.’
‘It is with shame and sorrow and deep regret for the things we have done that I stand here today and say: We were wrong. We apologize. I am sorry. We are sorry,’ Trudeau said to a standing ovation.
‘For state-sponsored, systemic oppression and rejection, we are sorry.’
The government also introduced legislation that would allow people to apply to have their criminal convictions for consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners erased from public record.
It has also earmarked more than $100million Canadian (US $78million) to compensate members of the military and other federal agencies whose careers were sidelined or ended due to their sexual orientation, part of a class-action settlement with employees who were investigated, sanctioned and sometimes fired as part of the so-called ‘gay purge.’
‘Those arrested and charged were purposefully and vindictively shamed. Their names appeared in newspapers in order to humiliate them, and their families. Lives were destroyed. And tragically, lives were lost,’ Trudeau said.