Canada celebrates Pride Month with 4 beautiful LGBTQ+ postage stamps

The stamp honoring Hanlan’s Point Beach | Canada Post

As the U.S. government removes symbolic gestures that honor 2SLGBTQI+ Americans, Canada’s government is recognizing 2SLGBTQI+ history with a series of Pride Month postage stamps. 2SLGBTQI+, or Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex+, is the designation for the community used by the Canadian government.

Canada’s postal service, Canada Post, issued the new stamps called “Places of Pride” earlier this month, including one that celebrates Hanlan’s Point Beach, a beach that has been a meeting point for 2SLGBTQI+ people for nearly 100 years. Located on Centre Island in the Toronto Islands (in Lake Ontario), the beach was known as a gay gathering place since the 1930s, since it was close enough to Toronto to be accessible to residents of that city but required taking a boat to get there, reducing but not eliminating police harassment.

While in the 1950s and 60s, several cottages near the beach were torn down and trees removed in order to dissuade gay visitors, according to Friends of Hanllan’s website, the 2SLGBTQI+ community continued to visit the beach. In 1971, it hosted the…

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