Nellie’s is a proud supporter of Toronto’s queer community and has been active participants at Pride for many years. To celebrate this year’s Pride Month, we’re diving into some of Toronto’s queer history.
What began as small events in the city celebrating the queer community has now grown into the Pride celebrations we know today — with Toronto Pride being one of the largest celebrations in the world. But where did it all start, and how did we get to the Pride celebrations we now see today? Here’s a brief look at Toronto’s queer history timeline.
1970 – Toronto’s first queer activist organizations, the Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT), the University of Toronto Homophile Association (UHTA), and the Toronto Gay Action Now, organize a picnic.
1971 – August 1, 1971 marked the first “Gay Day Picnic” at Hanlan’s Point in Toronto. On August 28, 1971, 100 people from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and surrounding areas gathered at Parliament Hill for Canada’s first Gay Liberation Protest and March while petitioning the government to fulfil a list of 10 demands for equal rights and protections.
1972 – Marked the first Gay Pride Week! This week’s festivities included a Pride Dance, festival, film night, march to Queen’s Park, rally, and the second annual “Gay Day Picnic.”
1973 – Pride week was celebrated in August. Organizers asked Toronto’s mayor to officially recognize the event and give them permission to march on Yonge Street, yet they were denied both requests.
1974 – This year, Pride Week was again celebrated in August. A march was also held from Allan Gardens to Queen’s Park, with more than 100 attendees fighting to include sexual orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code.
1978 – Toronto celebrated GAYDAYS: In Celebration of Lesbians and Gay Men over four days in August with Pride Day celebrations held at Cawthra Park. The first PrideFair was also held at Queen’s Park.
1980 – Gay rights activist George Hislop became the first LGBT political candidate in Ontario.
1981 – Toronto Police raided several bathhouses on February 5, 1981, known as “Operation Soap.” With 306 men arrested for being at the brothel or allegedly involved in indecent acts, much of the shame and blame was placed on the gay community, most of whom were later found innocent. The next day, a protest was held at Yonge and Wellesley, advocating for gay rights. Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Toronto was established legally, with over 1,500 people celebrating Pride later that year on June 28.
1987 – The Ontario Human Rights Code finally includes a policy on discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation.
1996 – The first Dyke March was held with 5,000 attendees, as well as the first Pride and Remembrance Run.
1999 – On June 1, 1999, Blockorama was established as the first black queer space in the Toronto Pride festival.
2000 – In September, police raided a lesbian bathhouse event nicknamed the Pussy Palace. A month later, the Pussy Palace Panty Picket Protest occurred outside of police headquarters, with attendees protesting the raid and the invasion of their privacy. Two years later, the officers were charged with violating the rights of the women at the event.
2001: For the first time, the city of Toronto’s official announcement of Pride includes transgender, bisexual, and transsexual persons.
2003: Ontario became one of the first two provinces in Canada to legalize same-sex marriage.
2009: Marked the first Trans March.
2014: The Senate passed Bill C-279, meaning that the Canadian Human Rights Act must include gender identity as a prohibited ground of discrimination.
We celebrate Pride today because of all those years of activism and advocacy for queer rights. But as we celebrate, we must recognize that there is still much more work to be done to create a world in which all people feel safer, valued, and included.