Banknotes featuring a same-sex marriage were considered in Canada, just a few years after marriage was redefined in the country.
The idea was put forward to the Bank of Canada by a market research group that was being paid over £300,000 to look into new banknote designs.
However the proposal was rejected and new banknotes featuring a war memorial and a ship have now been unveiled.
Consider
A law which brought in same-sex marriage was passed in Canada in July 2005.
In 2008 market research firm The Strategic Counsel drew up a number of image ideas for new banknotes.
Focus groups were given “the freedom to generate the widest possible range of ideas”.
Other ideas considered – and later rejected – were a black hockey player, a turban-wearing mounted police officer and children of different ethnic backgrounds building a snowman.
Censored
However the Bank of Canada eventually settled on an icebreaker ship, a World War I memorial and a medical researcher as pictures for the notes.
The revelations about the controversial same-sex marriage design were revealed by news agency The Canadian Press. It obtained heavily censored internal documents under a freedom of information law.
In October last year it was revealed that Canada was embroiled in a row over a poster which promoted polygamy in schools.
The poster declared: “Love has no gender” and showed a variety of relationships including an image of one man and two women, and two men and one woman.
Penalised
The poster was one of five different designs, including one that bore the words: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re in your school”.
In June last year it was revealed that hundreds of people have been penalised for opposing gay marriage in Canada since same-sex marriage was brought in.
The National Review, one of America’s most widely read political magazines, said there have been between 200 and 300 proceedings in less than five years.
Public employees have been disciplined, businesses have been sued and churches have been threatened with sanctions over their matrimonial beliefs.