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At the March 14, 2015 NSRAP "Four Decades Of Activism" event, Kevin introduced herself like this:
I've been a longtime member of NSRAP. I got invovlved when the biggest item on the agenda was Same Sex Marriage.
When I joined NSRAP there were more lawyers on the board than now, and it was a small organization in terms of budget and scope. I first got involved in thinking about same sex marriages by questioning whether that was the right thing to be on the agenda at that time. Is it something worth investing all our time and energy into? Should we be seen as the same as straight people?
When I joined NSRAP there were a few couples ready to come forward with this. The arguments were more about equality in the law or whether the Bible should dictate the roles of gays and lesbians in the society. It was this latter argument which brought me on board. This was probably the most significant change in Canadian law for gays and lesbians; it invovled actions in the courts - a series of them - and then another round of action in front of Parliament, an attempt to control the debate that was ongoing in the media - with energy invested in the media to convince the public. Finding allies in the cause was useful -, particularly the trade unions. Finding allies in organized religion was also valuable, so whenever there was an opposing religious voice, we could also find a supporting one. It involved a lot of coordination of groups working in the various provinces under a federal umbrella.
There were numerous numerous legal projects as well - on couple's rights, the rights of lesbian parents to both be listed on the child's birth certificate. And ones on trans healthcare needs, name changes, sex designation changes etc. Where does law reform fit within the movement? Lawsuits, human rights complaints, lobbying politicians. As an illustration of the importance, a lot of people asked whether there was anything to do once samesex marriage was won. When I got involved 12-15 years ago, there were a lot of things to work on. Big questions for the future: how to resolve civil liberties, hate speech, hate crimes, the rights of people to disagree with lgbtq rights.1
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