May 16, 2025
Every person deserves the right to love and live life as their true authentic selves.
As Canada’s leading organization for 2SLGBTQI people and issues, Egale Canada is deeply concerned by the recent comments of Pope Leo XIV reaffirming the Catholic Church’s traditional stance on marriage.
The assertion that family can only be “founded on the stable union between a man and a woman” erases the lived realities of countless loving families – led by same-sex couples, single parents, and gender diverse individuals – who provide care, support, and stability to their communities every day. All families deserve recognition, protection, and respect.
At a time when 2SLGBTQI communities are experiencing increasing levels of hate, harassment, and violence, it is unacceptable that we must still struggle for equal treatment. The Catholic Church’s continued stance of treating 2SLGBTQI people as lesser is, in fact, a profound violation of human dignity.
Faith and human rights are not mutually exclusive. We call on all leaders – religious and secular – to engage in dialogue that upholds compassion, inclusion, and equality for all people.
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