Canada Post Unveils Stamp Celebrating Marriage Equality
Published May 10, 2017 at 5:04 pm
Canada Post unveiled the fourth stamp in a set of 10 that will showcase historic moments from the last 50 years in celebration of Canada 150 this week.
The stamp commemorates the 2005 passage of the Civil Marriage Act, which made marriage equality the law throughout Canada.
Canada Post’s new stamp features the iconic rainbow symbolizing the LGBTQ community.
The unveiling this week was held at and in partnership with The 519, a City of Toronto agency committed to the health, happiness and full participation of LGBTQ communities.
For a bit of background, 12 years ago, on February 1, 2005, the Civil Marriage Act was introduced in Parliament as Bill C-38. After it was passed in the House of Commons and then in the Senate, the bill received Royal Assent on July 20, 2005, and marriage equality officially became the law.
The road to achieving marriage equality in Canada began long before 2005. For decades, LGBTQ activists and supporters from coast to coast had fought for the rights of their communities, including the right to marry. In the late 1990s is when the community began to achieve significant victories, such as in 1996, when the federal government passed Bill C-33, adding sexual orientation to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
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More than 20 countries have legalized same-sex marriage on the national level. To hear more from LGBTQ community members and activists about this fight for equality, click here. To learn more about the work of The 519, click here.
Each of the 10 maple-leaf shaped die-cut domestic-rate stamps is printed in 6 colours plus tagging. The self-adhesive stamps are available in a booklet of 10 (4 million stamps).
The next stamp in the Canada 150 set will be unveiled in Regina on May 16. The remaining stamps will be revealed individually at cities across the country, the last of them on June 1.
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