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Bien que les attitudes canadiennes envers les droits à L'egalité des homosexuels soient devenues plus libérates, la condamnation morale de L'homosexualité n'a pas changé. Cela reflète des tendances contradictoires dans les démocraties libérates, qui d'un côte enchâssent les droits de L'individu au libre choix et à L'égalité des chances, et de L'autre imposent L'hétérosexisme et les normes traditionnelles basées sur la famille. Quoique le soutien du public pour les droits des homosexuels soit entouré de messages insitutionnels contradictoires, ce qui le rend volatile et fragile, il ouvre cependant la porte à d'importantes réformes.Although Canadian attitudes toward gay equality rights have shifted toward more liberal positions, moral condemnation of homosexuality remains firm. This reflects contradictory tendencies in liberal democratic systems which on the one hand enshrine rights to individual choice and equal opportunity, and on the other enforce heterosexism and traditional family‐based norms. Although public support for gay rights is beset by conflicting institutional messages, and is both volatile and fragile as a result, it does provide an opening for important reforms.

This article considers the 'right to die' debate from the perspectives of older lesbians and gay men, drawing upon data gathered for a PhD in law. My argument is that older lesbians and gay men are multiply disadvantaged (a) by an increased risk of feeling that life is not worth living due to affective inequalities (inadequate informal and formal social support) and (b) by a denial of access to the right to die both under such circumstances and/or if they wish to resist the normativities associated with a passive, medicalized death. I argue for the need to distinguish between a wish to die because of deficiencies in the care system and a wish to die in order to control how, when and where one's life ends. My analysis highlights the contextual contingencies of 'vulnerability' in relation to the right to die and interrogates the heterosexist and disciplinary reproductive normativities underpinning the notions of 'natural' deaths.