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Queer History Timeline
377 Years of Queer History in Canada — 1648 to 2025
From European colonization to the present
Why write a queer history timeline for Canada? Well, there’s a lot to write about. But before we get into the timeline, here’s some background for the region we now know as North America.
Long before the French and English colonizers arrived on Turtle Island, indigenous third and fourth gender people were caretakers of children and the elderly, medicine people, matchmakers, treaty negotiators, beaders and dancers. The Anishinaabe term niizh manidoowag is translated into English as “two-spirit” and means a person who embodies both a masculine and a feminine spirit.
The Cree recognized napêw iskwêwisêhot and iskwêw ka napêwayat as men who dress like women and women who dress like men. The Siksika (Blackfoot) used the word aakíí’skassi for men who performed roles typically associated with women. The Ktunaxa (Kootenay) tribe had titqattek for women who took on roles traditionally associated with men.
Alexander Henry, British explorer of the Hudson’s Bay Company, described Ozaw-wen-dib in his journal as “a curious compound of man and woman,” and the North West Company’s David Thompson wrote about his encounter with Kaúxuma Núpika, who “declared her sex…
