Carmen Poulin and Lynne Gouliquer lived like caged birds for the first five years of their relationship.

The two researchers met in 1991 at a baseball game, when Gouliquer had just returned from deployment in the Middle East.

This was the era of the military purge of LGBTQ people, so the two were a couple at home, but friends and colleagues in public, Poulin said.

"The moment she was in her uniform the stress level would go up," said Poulin, who's now a professor of psychology at the University of New Brunswick. "It was an automatic reaction.

"We surveilled ourselves to be sure that, you know, there was no inkling that we were actually a couple and in love."

That's why it's absolutely "wild" for Poulin to see a painting of herself and Gouliquer, smiling and holding each other, hanging at Government House.

Tojuba Olatunde painted this portrait of Carmen Poulin and Lynne Gouliquer, whose research about the military 'gay purge' helped bring about a government apology in 2017. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)

The couple's painting is one of six portraits of New Brunswick Pride heroes — people who were chosen to be role models for LGBTQ people in the province. The paintings were commissioned by the art store Endeavours and done by local artists in August.

They've been hung in Fredericton and Oromocto high schools and are at Government House until March.

The people painted include Fredericton Police Force Chief Leanne Fitch, St. Mary's First Nation Chief Allan Polchies, educator Gail Costello, retired officer Colleen Calvert and Dr. Adrian Edgar.

Every person portrayed has been an advocate for the LGBTQ community and can inspire other people to strive to be strong, said organizer Tyler Randall.

Growing up in the last century, Randall said, he and his husband didn't have such models.

Peter McComb painted a portrait of Leanne Fitch, chief of the Fredericton police. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)

"So we've given the ability for youth to be inspired, to see that they can be great as well."

The collection is for sale for $15,000 to a buyer who will display them somewhere in the city.

The proceeds will go to the artists and Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based charity that finds safe havens for LGBTQ refugees from countries such as Chechnya and some parts of the Middle East.

"In many countries around the world … people are still marginalized and persecuted for who they are," Randall said.

Clandestine research

Poulin and Gouliquer spent 13 years researching the impact of systemic discrimination against LGBTQ people in the military and civil service. Poulin said they spoke to family members of people who died by suicide after being fired from the military.

"It was also very sad because people had gone through so much hurt," Poulin said.

Their research, along with others, helped compel the government to apologize for the "gay purge" in November 2017.

Natalie Sappier painted Dr. Adrian Edgar, who runs Clinic 554 in Fredericton. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)

Poulin said the majority of the research had to be done in secret.

"We felt that, you know, it was so risky at the time to be doing this research" she said. "People didn't want to talk about it about being in the military [and] being gay, lesbian.

"But we felt that the voices needed to be heard and that the history needed to be recorded of people who had lived during that whole era."

Poulin said she and Gouliquer had to train themselves to be reserved in public for so long, they still find it difficult to show affection. They still have trouble holding hands, she said.

"We went through too many years of strong discrimination to be able to shed all of this," she said.

Braelyn Cyr painted Allan (Chicky) Polchies of St. Mary's First Nation, the first openly two-spirited chief in Atlantic Canada. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)

But the apology in 2017, and seeing how much things have changed for the better, are somewhat of a "happy ending," Poulin said.

"I have hesitation to say I'm a hero," she said. "This is going to sound really cliché, but it took the community to get there."