Gay Alliance Toward Equality
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2013) |
| Abbreviation | GATE |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1971 |
| Founder | Maurice Flood |
| Founded at | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Dissolved | 1980 |
The Gay Alliance Toward Equality, or GATE, was one of the first Canadian gay liberation groups.[1]
Formed in spring 1971 in
One of the first high-profile cases launched for gay rights in Canada was launched by the Vancouver chapter of GATE in response to the Vancouver Sun's refusal to allow for a paid advertisement for the GATE newspaper, Gay Tide.[2] This would become the first gay rights case to reach the Supreme Court of Canada, although the judges ruled 6-3 in favour of the Vancouver Sun.[1]
Other prominent activities taken on by the group included picketing various human rights commissions over the lack of human rights protection for sexual orientation under Canadian law,[1] and taking on an advocacy role in the wrongful dismissal suit of John Damien when the Ontario Racing Commission fired him as a racing steward because of his sexuality.[1]
The Toronto group led a successful campaign in 1973 to lobby Toronto City Council to adopt a policy forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in municipal hiring, making the city the first jurisdiction in Canada to do so.[3]
In its later years, GATE also undertook some activities as a political party. One activist, Robert Douglas Cook, ran as a GATE candidate in British Columbia's 1979 provincial election, in the electoral district of West Vancouver-Howe Sound.[4] He has been credited by media sources in the past as the first openly gay candidate ever to run for political office in Canadian history;[4] however, he was merely the first to run as a candidate of a specifically gay-identified political organization, and was in fact preceded by at least two openly gay candidates for traditional political parties, and at least four openly gay candidates for non-partisan municipal offices.
The group dissolved in 1980.[1]
See also
- LGBT rights in Canada
- List of LGBT rights organisations
References
- ^ The Body Politic. Pink Triangle Press, 1982.
- ^ "Gay Alliance Towards Equality (GATE) - "Gay Tide" case" (1977-1979). Women's Movement Archives, Box: 27-47, ID: CA ON0034 10-001-S1-F1002. Ottawa ON: University of Ottawa.
- ^ "City Bars Job Discrimination", The Body Politic, no. 10, 1973.
- ^ a b EVERITT, J., & CAMP, M. (2014). "In versus Out: LGBT Politicians in Canada". Journal of Canadian Studies, 48(1), 226-251.