Toronto helped lead the world in its embrace of diversity when the first same-sex couple to be legally married in North America was wed here in 2003. That local tradition of re-examining legal attitudes to gender issues will carry on as York University professor Nancy Nicol
has received $1 million in funding to study the criminalization of sexual orientation and gender issues across the globe.
The funding, to be delivered over five years,
comes courtesy of the federal government's
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. According to the announcement of the award, Nicol will lead a 22-member team to "explore how LGBT and human rights groups resist criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity," especially in the developing world of the global south.
"Our work will combine documentary and participatory video with
qualitative interviewing, focus groups, legal data research and
analysis, and a limited use of surveys," Nicol says in a release. "We plan to make a
unique contribution to documenting and analyzing criminalization,
asylum and resistance to criminalization within and beyond regions."
Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Trevor Lynn, SSHRC;
York University