MLA opposes gay and lesbian rights in Nunavut

SARA ARNATSIAQ

Amittuq MLA Enoki Irqittuq says he will oppose the inclusion of equal protection for gays and lesbians under Nunavut’s proposed human rights legislation.

The bill received first and second reading in the legislature last fall and has been referred to a legislative assembly standing committee.

“I do want the human rights act for Nunavut, but to recognize lesbian and gay rights, it’s absolutely unfathomable,” Irqittuq said in an interview last month.

“In the South, people are free to do as they wish; for Inuit, I would outright refuse such a provision in the human rights act. It’s not our lifestyle.”

Other MLAs contacted by Nunatsiaq News did not return phone calls by press-time this week.

But gay and lesbian Inuit say they should have the same right to protection from discrimination – and abuse – as anyone else.
“People in the higher power – they don’t want to listen. It’s like beating your head against the wall,” said Tracy Adams, an Inuk lesbian originally from Labrador and now living in Ottawa.

“We’ll continue fighting. If they don’t want to listen in this day and age, we’ll always be fighting.”

It doesn’t surprise Adams that anti-gay attitudes exist. She admits that she has not returned to Labrador in years because she feels her family is ashamed of her.

Adams says that young people are more understanding and accepting than older people, who tend to be set in their ways and deep in denial about changes in the Inuit lifestyle.

“I was born this way. I did not ask to be born this way, but this is who I am. I did not ask to be abused every day of my life,” said an gay Inuk man in Iqaluit who asked not to be identified.

He uses the example of left-handers being forced to write with their right hand to describe his situation.

“You’re either born heterosexual, or you’re born gay,” he said.

If the Nunavut government were to refuse to acknowledge the small percentage of gays, lesbians and transgendered people in the territory, he suspects that he would leave and never come back.

“I’d probably be ashamed to be living in Nunavut as an Inuk. I’m sorry, but I would leave. If these people don’t care and I’m not going to be protected, and be subject to abuse, I might as well leave.”

But Premier Paul Okalik, the minister of justice, said it would never come to that, because gays and lesbians are protected by federal law.

“In the proposed bill, we’re recognizing all rights of everybody,” Okalik said. “Whether we put it in the human rights bill or not, it’s insignificant. The courts have determined that it’s already in there. So, whether we get a human rights bill or not, they’re there now and they’ll continue to be there regardless of what legislation we put in place.”

In addition, he dismissed the opposition of his colleague. “It’s not really an issue, it’s just an issue for people that want to raise a fuss, that just want to score cheap political points. It’s not really an issue for me.”

As for some resistance and denial about the existence of gays and lesbians from the Inuit leadership, he said: “We were told in the past by our elders, and perhaps that might not have been the case – I can’t counter it. I wasn’t there. But today, what we live under, its quite open. We have gays and lesbians who are Inuit and that is something we have to accept.”