Toby’s Act: a historic achievement for Ontario’s trans community On June 13, 2012, the Ontario government finally passed Bill 33 (named in honour of accomplished trans activist, pianist and jazz musician Toby Dancer), which amended the Ontario Human Rights Code to include gender identity and gender
The arrests that galvanized Toronto's gay community February 5, 2017, marks the 36th anniversary of Toronto’s infamous Bathhouse Raids. At 11:00 pm on February 5, 1981, 150 plain-clothed and uniformed Metro Toronto police officers staged raids on four bathhouses throughout the city, arresting 289 innocent men.
Harvey Milk is elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Having unsuccessfully run for public office three times, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay person to be elected to a significant public office when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Toronto’s first “Gay Day Picnic” was held on the beach at Hanlan’s Point on Sunday, August 1 In the summer of 1971, a group of gay and lesbian activists organized Toronto’s first Gay Day picnic at Hanlan’s Point Beach on the Toronto Islands. It was a
A violent uprising known as the Stonewall Riots would later be credited as a major turning point in the gay rights movement In the early hours of June 28, 1969, in New York’s Greenwich Village, a police raid of the Mafia-run Stonewall Inn—a gay bar at
Tennis great Billie Jean King outed On April 28, 1981, former Beverly Hills hairdresser Marilyn Barnett filed a multimillion-dollar palimony suit against tennis icon Billie Jean King, claiming that the two had a seven-year relationship. Barnet felt she was entitled to King’s Malibu beach house as
Canada's first gay right's case In 1985, Brian Mossop, a gay man from Toronto, was denied bereavement leave to attend his partner’s father’s funeral. He was denied since same-sex partners, at the time, were not considered immediate family. Mossop took the case to the Human
The Bad Old Days How quickly an unassuming night can turn into a nightmare. That’s what happened to patrons of a Calgary bathhouse on December 12, 2002, 13 years ago this month. Police raided Goliath’s Sauna in what many saw as an attack on gay rights.