Artifact 7: Movement - Description of Second Toronto Bathhouse Raids Protest

This is a section of an article from The Body Politic covering the February 20 1981 protest in Toronto. This passage emphasizes the feelings of determination and solidarity that occurred that night—feelings that carried through to every other act of resistance against anti-gay persecution from Toronto police. In spite of the various injustices Toronto’s gay community faced at the hands of police, they managed to turn out not one, but two massive protests. The first, organized two weeks before the one mentioned here, had 3,000 attendees. Incredibly, the second not only maintained but increased the momentum for this movement, boasting nearly 4,000 demonstrators of all sorts. These acts of resistance provided a platform for everyone who had experienced brutality at the hands of Toronto police to air their woes and tell the city that this could not continue, ushering forth a movement not just for gay people, but for all Torontonians.

-------------------------

Artifact Citation: Hannon, Gerald, Bill Loos, Elinor Mahoney, Craig Patterson, and Roger Spalding. “An Italian housewife and thousands of gay people find out what they have in common: “Who is the next? Me?” The Body Politic, April 1, 1981. https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic72toro/page/9/mode/1up?view=theater.

Caption Bibliography:

Hannon, Gerald, Bill Loos, Elinor Mahoney, Craig Patterson, and Roger Spalding. “An Italian housewife and thousands of gay people find out what they have in common: “Who is the next? Me?” The Body Politic, April 1, 1981. https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic72toro/page/9/mode/1up?view=theater.