Canada.com/montrealgazette – Anne Sutherland
In 1960, not long after coming out, Winnipeg-born Robin Tyler stood at the landmark street corner at Portage and Main with a placard that said: Gay is Good.
“People thought I was promoting happiness,” she recalled. “I couldn’t find anyone else out of the closet.”
How times have changed. Today, Tyler is among 2,000 delegates from more than 100 countries attending the largest human-rights conference on issues of interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals taking place at the Palais des Congres.
Legal scholars, judges, activists, researchers, rights advocates, academics, union representatives and journalists are among those gathering for the four-day International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, which is tied to the 1st World Outgames.
“The large number of delegates coming from all over the globe will undoubtedly provide new contacts, new impulses and new bridges to enhance the vitally needed international work,” said Radio Sweden broadcaster Bill Schiller, a gay and lesbian rights activist who is scheduled to speak.
Tyler, now a stand-up comic and lesbian activist living in California, will bring a little levity to the proceedings by reading the second act of her Broadway show, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom.
Tyler left Canada in the ’60s because she had heard that the United States was more accepting of gays. “Isn’t that ironic?” she said in a recent phone interview. “Now Canada has passed civil rights for gays, and the U.S. is still dominated by religious fanatics.”