In the 1953-54 parliamentary session, the Criminal Code was amended to also criminalize homosexuality between women. The amendment took effect in the summer of 1954.

In 1890, the House of Commons introduced a new offence called “gross indecency." The new offence made it easier to charge suspected sodomites.

In 1893, the gross indecency law became part of the country’s first Criminal Code. The original language of the law referred only to homosexual acts between men, as sex between women was typically ignored at the time.

In 1648, the first documented case of a sodomy conviction occurred.

The military drummer, who was the man convicted, was found guilty and was sentenced to death. However, Jesuits stepped in and were able to transfer the case to Québec City, where his life was sparred.

From then until 1893, few known cases exist of homosexuals being sentenced to death.

On June 10th, 2003, Ontario became the first province in Canada to legalize civil unions for gay couples. The second province to legalize it was British Columbia less than a month later on July 8th, 2003.

Until 2012, Canada federally required surgery for gender recognition on passports. However, until 2017, gender recognition elsewhere generally varied by province and territory.

Gender recognition was first provided on a state-by-state basis in 1978 with Quebec and Ontario.

Until 1978, there was no legal gender recognition provided in Canada.

Gender-affirming care falls under provincial jurisdiction. Currently no province or territory restricts it, however some provinces like Alberta have spoken about restricting or outright banning care for minors in the future.

In 1969, the first gender identity clinic opened in Toronto at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and the first gender-affirming surgery in Canada was performed in 1970.

To qualify, applicants had to be employed, be straight, never have been convicted of a crime, have lived as their identified gender for at least two years, and have changed all their legal documents.

On July 28th, 2017, the Government of Northwest Territories became the first jurisdiction in Canada to offer a third gender option.

Before July 28th, 2017, no jurisdictions in Canada allowed a third gender option.

Before the 2017 amendment, only sexual orientation was included as a protected class.

Federal human rights law applies directly to only federal government employment and employers which fall under federal jurisdiction. Gender identity is only implicitly protected under interpretation of the law by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Attempts have been made to have gender identity and gender expression added as protected classes to both the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code, though none of these attempts so far has been successful.

Provincial human rights acts are separate, but Supreme Court precedent exists for requiring provinces to protect the same classes as the Canadian Human Rights Act. At this time all provinces protect against employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Of the provinces only Ontario has explicit protection on the basis of both gender identity and gender expression in its human rights code, though several provide implicit protections on the basis of gender identity or "transsexualism" under the category of "sex" or "gender".

Before 2011, not all Canadian states and provinces had changed their regulations to allow same-sex adoption. The first to fully allow it was Quebec in 1982.

Before Douglas v Canada LGBT individuals were banned from serving in the Canadian military.

In 2019, Health Canada lessened their deferral period to 3 months for men who have sex with men.

Health Canada approved Canadian Blood Services’ proposal to reduce the blood donation ineligibility period for men who have sex with men from five years to one year.

Health Canada changed the indefinite deferral period to a 5-year deferral, effective May 22, 2013.

Men who had sex with men, even just once, were banned indefinitely from donating blood in Canada from 1977 to 2013.

Before the 1977 ban, there were no restrictions on men who had sex with men from donating blood in Canada.

Ontario became the first province in 2015 to ban conversion therapy.

It only became banned federally in 2022.

Until June 4th 2015, conversion therapy was not banned anywhere in Canada.

The age of consent in for anal sex in Canada is 18, whereas the age of consent for acts of sex is 16.