CRIM 332 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Dangerous Offender, Gay Liberation, Medicalization

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRIM 332
• Professor: Nicole Myers

Document Summary

This week we discuss the shifting recognition and protection of gay rights. Parallels are drawn between the regulation of abortion and the regulation of homosexuality and same sex relationships. The supreme court first ruled that sexual orientation is an analogous grounds to those enumerated in the charter, and a number of years later the right to marry was recognized. While change has been incremental, the charter provides a guarantee to equality and access to the legal arena to fight for rights recognition. In an ongoing fight for rights recognition the charter provides the language of rights for advocating the importance of gender identity and the need to recognize trans rights. Foucault drew a distinction between act-based vs identity-based regulation: governing sexuality through acts. Focus not on the person, but actions they are participating in whether you did this or did not do this action. Through criminal law, religious injunction, eg no polygamy: the homosexual identity.