DECLASSIFIED: Canadian military exaggerated number of gay troops in its ranks
Federal records reveal the Canadian military partly justified ending its ban on gay recruits using estimates that overstated the number of LGBTQ service members by roughly four times.
Internal Canadian Armed Forces documents from the early 1990s claimed that as many as 10 per cent of military personnel could have “homosexual orientation to some degree” if the Forces reflected broader Canadian society.
“If one assumes the Canadian Forces is a mirror of Canadian society then upwards to 10 percent of the military could have homosexual orientation to some degree,” stated a 1991 Information Booklet On Sexual Orientation In The Canadian Forces.
“These are best estimates... since accurate numbers could only be known if all homosexuals declared themselves as such.”
