History of Pride Stamps
After researching existing stamps in the Canada Post archives, I found that there was only one Pride stamp that Canada Post has designed. This made me want to design stamps to celebrate pride and queer people in Canada. There are a lot of directions in the genre of pride. However, I decided to look into the early stages of the legalization of homosexuality and the pioneers in LGBTQ rights legalization. This leads me to five stamp designs which features:
Anne & Elaine Vautour
Anne & Elaine Vautour are a lesbian couple, and the first gay couple to be married in Canada. They tied the knot on January 15, 2001 at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto and was the first “legal” same sex-marriage in Canada.
Svend Robinson & Libby Davies
Both Members of Parliament and part of the New Demographic Party of Canada. Svend Robinson and Libby Davies were the first gay and lesbian MPs who came out while they were active on their political parties.
Jim Egan & Jack Nesbit
Jim Egan was gay activist and journalist active in Canada from 1949-1964. All he wanted was to be able to live freely with his partner Jack Nesbit and wrote about being gay and challenged the homophobia faced by the LGBTQ community at the time. He is extremely admirable because he was a proponent of gay rights before it was legal.
Everette George Klippert
The last man to be imprisoned for the crime of homosexuality. The Klippert v. The Queen case was the last of it’s kind and sparked the beginning of major protests in Canada.
We Demand Rally
Also called Canada’s Stonewall, the We Demand Rally was the first major LGBTQ protest in Canada. There were protests both in Ottawa and Vancouver, and participants aimed to present a list of demands to the government in relation to LGBTQ rights and freedoms.
