Moments in History

Each year, around the spring equinox, communities across Canada celebrate and raise awareness of 2SLGBTQIA+ Indigenous and Two-Spirit People. Observed on or near March 20, this day highlights the leadership, resilience, and cultural significance of Indigenous people who identify as Two-Spirit, as well as their place within the broader 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

The We Demand Rally, in Ottawa, was the country’s first large-scale demonstration for gay rights. While the crowd numbered fewer than 200, the event marked the beginning of a national conversation about equality for gay, bisexual, and lesbian Canadians, and what we now call the wider 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

In August 1973, something quietly remarkable happened across Canada. For the first time, LGBT communities in cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal organized a coordinated week of events that would later be known as Canada’s first Pride Week. It didn’t look like the large, colourful parades we often see today. There were no floats, no […]

On May 30th this year, we commemorate the forty-fourth anniversary of the Pisces Bathhouse Raid, a planned operation by Edmonton’s legal system to arrest Gay men in what was previously a safe space to gather and connect. The legacy of the raids has had an enduring and long-lasting effect on Edmonton’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and we […]

May 22nd was Harvey Milk’s birthday, and every year we mark that occasion by taking time to remember him. Harvey Milk was a tireless fighter and advocate for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights in a time when Stonewall was still a fresh memory, and the results of his work still echo throughout the continuing fight for equal rights. […]

Every year, on January 27, the world pauses to honour the lives lost during one of history’s darkest chapters: the Holocaust. This day is not just about remembering Jewish victims but also about reflecting on the persecution of other marginalized groups, including 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. By revisiting these shared histories of suffering, we uncover lessons that […]

This year, the Trans pride flag celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary as one of the most beloved and iconic symbols of the Transgender community. One of the oldest out of the family of pride flags, the Trans flag was created by Trans woman and US Navy veteran Monica Helms in 1999. She was inspired to do so after a conversation with Michael Page, a friend who happened to be the designer of the Bisexual flag of 1998.

In 1990, at the Third North American Gathering of Native Gays and Lesbians in Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre north of Winnipeg the term two-spirit was adopted. The two-spirit term was used to describe Indigenous individuals who possess both masculine and feminine spirits and attributes. This term originated from the need to develop a unique identity […]

This June 28th marks the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, an event that forever changed activism for the Gender, Sexual, and Relationship (GSRD) community and has become an enduring story and symbol of when the fight for equal rights truly emerged into the open. On the night of June 25th, a police raid took […]

Many are familiar with the Toronto Bathhouse Raids of February 1981, but the lesser-known Edmonton Bathhouse Raids occurred that same year. Between 1969 and 1981, Canada witnessed dozens of such raids, resulting in hundreds of arrests. While these raids were not unprecedented, 1981 marked a turning point—the year the Canadian […]

To delve into a historical event from over two decades ago, let’s rewind to February 2000. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in May 1999, the Liberal Party introduced Bill C-23, known as the Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act. This legislation aimed to afford same-sex partners who had cohabited for over a year the same […]

February 5, 1981: police officers rushed into several of Toronto’s gay bathhouses as part of a coordinated raid. The raid had been several months in the making.

September 14 marks the day the The Pussy Palace, Toronto’s first women and transgender bathhouse, opened in 1998. However, two years later in 2000 it also marked the first – and last – police raid of a bathhouse in Toronto. The Pussy Palace was the first of its kind in Toronto, as it not only […]

On June 12th we remember the 49 people who were killed and 53 others who were injured in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016. The event aims to honour the victims of this tragedy, as well as raise awareness […]

On March 16, 2000, Bill 202, an amendment to the provincial Marriage Act that exclusively included a heterosexual definition of marriage, was approved by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ Notwithstanding Clause was also cited in the measure. This protected the Marriage Act from being challenged in court for […]

Four women were enjoying a night out on January 5, 1974, when an uninvited man approached them and became aggressive and insulting. Following the incident, the women were verbally harassed while in police custody and were not allowed to call a lawyer.