Should the Director of a Human Rights Museum Support LGBT Rights?

by Michael Jones · 2009-09-19 09:37:00 UTC
Topics:

Canada Museum for Human Rights

There's controversy in Canada this week, with a conservative politician who previously voted to ban gays and lesbians from adopting children selected by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to direct the Winnipeg-based Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The Museum, slated to open in 2012, is thought to be the largest museum planned anywhere in the world dedicated to human rights. But is selecting a politician with an anti-LGBT past the best foot forward for the museum?

The politician in question is Stuart Murray, and in addition to voting against gay adoption, he also favored denying pension rights to same-sex partners as a member of Parliament from 2000-2006.  And that has many Canadian activists crying foul and hypocrisy that someone opposed to human rights for LGBT people would be selected to lead a museum commemorating such rights.

One activist, Daniel Voth, told the Winnipeg Free Press, "We must let our voices be heard loud and clear that homophobia cannot be tolerated anywhere, least of all in a national museum on human rights."

Other activists are saying that Murray's appointment is nothing more than political cronyism at play, with a friend of conservative political interests being rewarded with a good job. That's what Lorri Millan told Extra.ca. "[Murray] was a marginal leader during his time and he doesn't reflect any diversity. He's not a curator and he's not a director. I can't see it as anything other than a cushy appointment for a long-time Tory."

Ouch. So not only was he a marginal leader, but he also supported anti-gay policies. Seems like quite the imperfect fit to direct a human rights museum. It might be like asking Dick Cheney, who proudly voted against recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. with a national holiday in the U.S., to direct a civil rights museum.

LGBT rights are human rights. Any director of a human rights museum needs to recognize that.

For their part, one of Canada's largest LGBT organizations, Egale Canada, is scheduled to meet with Murray to ask him some tough questions about his record on LGBT rights. Suffice it to say, if Murray doesn't answer up for some of his past votes, he doesn't deserve to be directing one of the world's largest museums for human rights.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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