{"id":7150,"date":"2006-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-06T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/2006\/10\/06\/recognizing-relationships\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T12:01:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T16:01:03","slug":"recognizing-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2006\/10\/06\/recognizing-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public forums on two vital national social policy issues \u2013 same-sex marriage and parental rights \u2013 will take place Oct. 11 and 18 at York University.<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Hosted by documentary filmmaker and York visual arts Professor Nancy Nicol, the forums will feature screenings of Nicol\u2019s most recent productions: The End of Second Class<\/I> (2006) and Politics of the Heart<\/I> (2005). Each film will be followed by a panel discussion with distinguished academics, lawyers and activists who are at the forefront of the struggle to win equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Canada.<\/P>
\n

Right: A scene from Nicol's documentary The End of Second Class<\/EM><\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

\"With the federal government threatening to re-open the marriage debate and its recent decision to cut the Court Challenges Program, there couldn\u2019t be a better time to shed light on the long, arduous battle the queer community waged to win relationship recognition, same-sex marriage and parenting rights,\" said Nicol.<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

The End of Second Class<\/I> traces the debate about same-sex marriage in Canada over the past decade, up to the passage into law of Bill C-38, governing same-sex marriage, on July 20, 2005. The film tells the story from the perspective of three couples from Quebec, BC and Ontario, and the lawyers and activists who sought to uphold their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

The End of Second Class<\/I> premiered earlier this year at Toronto\u2019s Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, where it won the Elle Flanders Award for best feature documentary as well as critical acclaim. Eye<\/I> magazine hailed it as \"powerful \u2026an engaging human-rights polemic\". \"It is Nicol\u2019s breadth of material and her subjects\u2019 depth of insight that makes this documentary such compelling viewing,\" wrote XTRA<\/I>. <\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Politics of the Heart<\/I> is a portrait of lesbian and gay families in Quebec who fought for recognition of their relationships, families and parental rights, leading to the Quebec government\u2019s landmark equal marriage law. Passed by unanimous vote in the Quebec National Assembly in 2002, Bill 84 extended the same rights to homoparental families as heterosexual parents, putting Quebec at the forefront of LGBT parental rights internationally.<\/P>
\n

Left: Nicol's Politics of the Heart <\/EM>portrays lesbian and gay families in Quebec who fought for recognition of their relationships, families and parental rights<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Both films are gaining national and international attention. Recent screenings include the International Human Rights Forum at the first World Out Games in Montreal and the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Portugal. Upcoming presentations include Image + Nation in Montreal and OutTakes in Dallas, Texas in November, and the International Human Rights in Film Festival of the Helsinki Foundation in Warsaw, Poland in December. <\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Nicol\u2019s research and creative work span video art, documentary, the intersection between activism and art, human rights and equality, and the history and politics of movements for social change. Following on The End of Second Class<\/I>, Politics of the Heart<\/I>, and her 2002 film Stand Together <\/I>(on lesbian and gay activism in Ontario from 1967 to 1987), she is currently working on a fourth documentary to complete her film series on LGBT rights history in Canada. She is also working on an oral history and book titled Politics of the Heart<\/I> in collaboration with Miriam Smith of Trent University<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

The forum on same-sex marriage<\/STRONG> will take place Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 4:30 to 7:30pm in Room 001, Accolade East Building. The forum will begin with a screening of The End of Second Class<\/I> (90 min.) followed by a panel discussion moderated by Kathryn McPherson, Chair of the School of Women\u2019s Studies at York.<\/P>
\n

Panelists:<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n