Toronto’s police chief has apologized for a series of bathhouse raids that galvanized the city’s gay community 35 years ago.
The raids–and the reaction to them–are seen as a transformative even in Canadian social history, akin to the Stonewall raid in New York City a dozen years before.
When police armed with crowbars and sledge hammers raided four city bathhouses and arrested 300 gay men on Feb. 5, 1981, the reaction was swift.
“When the bathhouse raids hit, we were under attack. The response was universal,” says Dennis Findley, president of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
“Not just within the gay community and the lesbian community but the straight community also went, ‘What is going on here? This is an utter invasion of people’s privacy.'”
The raids were quickly followed by rallies and demonstrations in downtown Toronto, one marching to a local police office, the other to the Ontario Legislature.
“There followed almost instantaneous community reaction on a scale was extraordinary,” says David Rayside, who helped organize legal defence funds after the raids.
Most of those arrested were charged with being found in a common bawdy house. Over 90 per cent of the cases were dismissed or dropped.
On Wednesday, current Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told a Pride reception at Toronto police headquarters that the force “regrets” the raids and their “destructiveness” on the many lives of those arrested.
Canada legalized gay marriage in 2005, becoming the third country in the world to do so.
This spring, the Canadian government introduced federal legislation that would guarantee legal and human rights protection to transgender people across Canada.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.