Une Memoire de Pierre

Lavender LivesPierre Trudeau1919 - 2000
by Todd Richmond365Gay.com Features Editor
Not all Lavender Lives are gay or lesbian.

We have many friends who have been instrumental in helping us along the road to freedom. One of them was Pierre Elliott Trudeau. May 15,1969 Canada decriminalized homosexuality. It was the first time in the New World that it was legal to be gay or lesbian, and it marked the beginning of our quest for full civil rights; a battle that is still not over.

We can thank the tireless efforts of early gay campaigners. But we must also recognize that it was Pierre Elliott Trudeau who listened. Joseph Phillippe Pierre Ives Elliott Trudeau was born on October 18th 1919, in Montreal, Quebec. Pierre was the 2nd child of Charles Emile (father) and Grace Trudeau. His father was a successful Montreal businessman, his mother was of Scottish ancestry.

Pierre attended a long list of schools throughout his life. Trudeau received an honors Law Degree from the University of Montreal and an honours degree in Political Economics from Harvard. As well Trudeau received a number of honorary degree's from various Universities around the world.

Pierre was raised in an English and French speaking household.
Trudeau was elected to the House of Commons in 1965, as a Liberal. In 1967, he was appointed Justice Minister by then Prime Minister Lester B.Pearson.

It was a chilly Ottawa day that Trudeau rose in the House of Commons and uttered those now famous words: There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."

With that he introduced the legislation removing most homosexual acts from the criminal code. His battle in the cabinet room to get that legislation is intense. Western Liberals and many from farming communities in Eastern Canada were opposed. The fight in the Liberal caucus was even more heated. Finally he persuaded Pearson to make the Commons vote mandatory, ensuring its passage.

A few years later, when Person retired, Trudeau was elected the 15th Prime Minister of Canada, and "Trudeaumania" began. The charisma of the man swept the country. Most of his time in office was spent trying to unite Canada's two cultures. By bringing Canada's constitution from England, where it was originally enacted, to Canada where it belonged, he accomplished the second great act for gays and lesbians.

He enshrined in the Constitution a Bill of Rights: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is that Charter which today is used to successfully to fight for the balance of our rights. From the case of an Alberta school teacher, Delwin Vriend, fired for being gay, to the "M" versus "H" case where the Supreme Court recognized the rights of spouses, the Charter has defined who we are as gays and lesbians.

It will be used again when the battle over Gay and Lesbian marriage reaches the High Court.
Trudeau died in October, 2000. At his funeral his son Justin in an emotional eulogy summed his father up most beautifully, "He has kept his promises and earned his sleep."