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For the majority, charges were later dropped or dismissed. Police stormed four gay bathhouses in the city as part of what they called “Operation Soap,” and arrested just under 300 men. The Canadian Immigration Act was also amended, lifting a ban prohibiting gay men from immigrating.ġ978: Buddies in Bad Times, Canada’s oldest surviving theatre company dedicated to LGBT theatre, is launched by Matt Walsh, Jerry Ciccoritti and Sky Gilbert.ġ979: Montreal and Vancouver become the first Canadian cities to host an official Pride march and festival.ġ980: Edmonton holds their first ever Pride Festival.ġ981: The catalyst for Toronto’s Pride events was the Bathhouse Raids that occurred on Feb. By December, the province of Quebec becomes the second jurisdiction in the world, behind only Denmark, to pass a law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. A protest organized the next day attracts 2,000 participants. The women brought charges against the officers subsequently for verbal and physical police harassment, however the officers were acquitted due to their switching their hats and badge numbers making them unable to be accurately identifed.ġ976: Police crackdowns against gay bars in Montreal’s Stanley Street gay village, widely perceived as mayor Jean Drapeau’s attempts to “clean up” the city in advance of the 1976 Summer Olympics, lead to riots.ġ977: In October, two gay establishments in Montreal, Mystique and Truxx, are raided.
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This was also one of the first occasions that a gay or lesbian topic received extensive press coverage in Canada. Some historians believe that the arrest and its consequences was a key incident ushering in a more militant gay and lesbian liberation movement in Canada, much as the Stonewall Inn Riots politicized gays and lesbians in the United States.
CANADIAN GAY PRIDE FLAG MANUAL
Homosexuality is removed as a “disorder’ from the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of mental disorders.ġ974: In January, The Brunswick four are arrested at the Brunswick Tavern in Toronto. This event represented the shift from the homophile movement into the gay liberation movement, showing the emergence of the concept of gay pride, and can also be considered the first pride parade in Vancouver. Programming included an art festival, a dance, picnic, a screening of a documentary and a rally for gay rights that occurred in all the participating cities. One day before the Stonewall Riots took place in New York.ġ971: In August, the first protests for gay rights took place in Ottawa and Vancouver, demanding an end to all forms of state discrimination against gays and lesbians.ġ973: Pride Week 1973 was a national LGBT rights event held in August 1973 in several Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF PRIDE ACROSS CANADAġ969: On Canada decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act first introduced in December 1968. Our history is expansive and this is not, by any means, a comprehensive list. It was not the only turning point in our history, so we present to you a brief timeline of notable events in the history of Pride in Canada. The most well known of these are the Toronto raids which lead to riots that turned into what is today, a vibrant pride festival. Canada, however, has it’s own rich history and turning points in the struggle for and eventual celebration of LGBT rights. When asked about the history of pride, often the first thing that comes to people’s minds are the Stonewall Riots.