Parliament gay bar toronto

Hislop hustles On the hustings, that is I want in! George Hislop, first openly gay man to run for civic office, outside city hall. Photo: Doug Durand. Not unusual for The Body Politic -- but the particular brand this time was one we had often disparaged: electoral politics. More than once we had quoted that old if grammatically incorrect line: Whoever you vote for, the gay will get in.

The first Canada-wide gay group, the National Gay Election Coalition, had been bar of electioneering, during the federal campaign of But the next year it evolved into the National Gay Rights Coalition, addressing wider issues. It remained as it had begun not an insular lobby on Parliament Hill but an alliance of local grassroots gay groups.

Most gay political action was intensely local. We liked it that way: real power had to grow from the grassroots. This year in Toronto, electioneering toronto vigorously churned up the turf. Looking back on his toronto minute speech at TBP 's rally a year before -- and on the ensuing uproar -- he had no regrets.

In the same issue George Hislop appeared, standing in front of city hall. On December 10, he had been elected by city council to a three year term on the planning board, making him the first openly gay person in the city's history to serve in civic office. Now -- despite charges still pending against him since the parliament on The Barracks -- he planned a bid for city council itself.

Hislop's run would occupy three lead news pieces, many smaller ones, and two big features in TBP this year -- to the irritation of some readers living outside the city. More than two bar did, half of them across Canada and the rest beyond, mostly in the US. Gay parliament may be local but, we'd be reminded, Toronto isn't the only locale.

To us in it may as well have been: Toronto's civic campaigns became the country's hottest bed of grassroots gay activism. Buddy's was no longer just a bar: it was campaign central. The police kept a low profile this year, at least in Toronto, perhaps waiting out the results of those elections. On Halloween, for the first time, after years of community pressure, they'd prevent hostile crowds gathering for the gay nonexistent drag parade from The Parkside to The St Charles.

But in Montreal cops were busy, raiding Sauna David April 25, charging 61 men as bawdy house found-ins. The next night more than 1, people were in the streets again, this time not met by the riot squad.

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Some in that demo carried posters reading "Oui! We say yes! After all, we were fighting for self determination, too. The "Yes" side would lose that time, 60 percent voting "No. Mikey's way Michael Wade's journals are filled with tales of "going in" -- bringing in a great deal with him.