Human rights

Learn your rights so you can defend them—and the people you love.

Canada’s human rights legislation provides protections for 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. Every person in Canada—regardless of whom they love, their citizenship status, or how they identify or express their gender—has the right to live free without fear of discrimination, violence, or exclusion, and to be fully included and embraced in all facets of Canadian society.

Same-sex marriage has been legal throughout Canada since 2005.

Since 2017, it has been illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity or gender expression, in addition to the previously protected groups (age, race, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or marital status).