Canadians will have a new coin in their wallets and purses this week, one which celebrates the “decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada.”
The “loonie,” valued at $1, which was released in Toronto Tuesday celebrates “50 years of progress for LGBTQ2 Canadians” on its face, according to CBC News.
“LGBTQ2” refers to those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and “two-spirited,” a term that refers to Indigenous people who identify as having both a “masculine and a feminine spirit … to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity,” according to LGBTQhealth.ca.
Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau trumpeted the coin’s issue in a Tuesday tweet:
New $1 #Equality coin marking 50 years since Canada took the first step towards decriminalizing homosexuality is unveiled by @Bill_Morneau @MarLemay1 @R_Boissonnault #RightToLove https://t.co/5zW3sSuVAp
— Royal Canadian Mint (@CanadianMint) April 23, 2019
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made LGBTQ rights a primary focus of his government that has been embattled and distracted by a judicial interference scandal for the past three months. (Trudeau Approves Gay Rights Coin For Circulation In 2019)
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves to the crowd while walking in the Vancouver Pride Parade with his family in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 31, 2016. REUTERS/Ben Nelms
But the director of political operations for Canada’s largest pro-life group said the move is nothing more than propaganda.
“This is state-operated propaganda, pure and simple, using our money system,” Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition told The Daily Caller. “It’s Orwellian. Something you’d expect from a dictatorship like Communist China, the former Soviet Union …
“What Trudeau has done in putting homosexual propaganda on our coinage is really beyond the pale. Justin’s father famously said that the state doesn’t belong in the bedrooms of the nation. Justin is doing the opposite of what his father preached, and imposing the bedroom on our currency! It’s outrageous … This really is a brain-washing exercise, using our currency to indoctrinate all of society with Justin Trudeau’s personal beliefs about homosexuality.”
“We encourage Canadians to boycott the gay looney. If offered the coin as change, Canadians should say, ‘No, please give me real currency.’”
Pro-LGBTQ activists are holding a news conference in Toronto to protest what they maintain is persistent criticism of LGBTQ2.
York University historian Tom Hooper, who is part of the group, claims LGBTQ people are still facing discrimination in their lives and work and urged the federal government to become better acquainted with these alleged human rights violations. (RELATED: Trudeau Marched In Gay Pride Parade On Sunday)
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in an interview with Maclean’s journalist Paul Wells at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 17, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
The mint “could have consulted people who have knowledge of this history but they didn’t,” Hooper told CBC News.
Trudeau has offered a formal apology to LGBTQ Canadians for allegedly denying their rights in the past.
