LGBT History

Vancouver History

Vancouver has come a long way and is a leader in the growth of the LGBT community. As Canada's LGBT movement grew, Vancouver grew to establish its own unique LGBT culture and community.

We celebrate our past and the route we have taken to get here.

1964 - The Association for Social Knowledge was the first Gay group founded in BC.
1971 - The Gay Alliance Towards Equality was founded.
1973 - The first Vancouver Pride Festival took place.
1977 - The B.C. Gay & Lesbian Archives were first compiled.
1978 - The Feminist & Lesbian Action Group was started in Vancouver.
1979 - The first Vancouver Dyke March took place and the Gay & Lesbian Community Center opened.
1980 - The first Bisexual Support Group was founded.
1982 - The Gay Rights Union was founded at UBC.
1983 - AIDS Vancouver was founded.
1985 - Angles Newspaper was founded in Vancouver.
1987 - Vancouver's first openly gay city councilor came out.
1990 - The Gay Games & Cultural festival was held in Vancouver.
1992 - Canada's United Church ordained its first openly gay minister.
1997 - Vancouver's first Queer Film Festival was launched.
1997 - Vancouver’s police chief was the first in Canada to march in a Pride Parade.
2000 - The first North American Bisexual Conference was held in Vancouver.
2003 - British Columbia legalized same sex marriage.
2004 - The IGLTA conference was held in Vancouver.
2005 - Vancouver Pride Society's then President was the first gay person to marry in Canada after federal legislation changed the constitution.
2008 - The Vancouver Pride Parade drew a record attendance of 530,000.

Canadian History Part 1

1965 - Everett Klippert acknowledges to police that he is gay, has had sex with men, and is unlikely to change.
1967 - Everett Klippert was sent to jail indefinitely as a "dangerous sex offender" for having sex with men. This sparked proposed amendments of the Canadian Criminal Code by Pierre Trudeau, who famously declared: "there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."
1969 - Pierre Trudeau's proposed amendments to the Criminal Code take affect, decriminalizing homosexuality in Canada. Everett Klippert is released from prison two years later.
1977 - Quebec was the first province in Canada to pass a gay civil rights law by including sexual orientation in its Human Rights Code. The law prohibited discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing, public accommodation and employment. By 2001, all provinces and territories, except Alberta, Prince Edward Island, and the Northwest Territories, took similar steps.
1977 - ‘Homosexuals' removed from the list of inadmissible classes in Canada's new Immigration Act.
1980 - MP Pat Carney introduced an act to the House of Commons, Bill C-242, which would of prohibited discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The bill, which did not pass, would have inserted "sexual orientation" into the Canadian Human Rights Act. MP Svend Robinson introduced similar bills throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, all of which were defeated.
1981 - More than 300 men were arrested in police raids at four gay bath houses in Toronto, sparking a protest of approximately 3,000 people the next day. The protest is considered to be Canada's ‘Stonewall.'
1986 - Following a report from a Parliamentary Committee of Equality Rights, the Canadian Government promised to "take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that sexual orientation is a prohibited ground of discrimination in relation to all areas of federal jurisdiction."
1988 - MP Svend Robinson of the NDP announced publically that he is gay, becoming the first gay Member of Parliament in Canada.
1991 - Delwin Vriend, an instructor at King's University College in Edmonton, was fired in 1991 for being gay. The Alberta Human Rights Commission refused to investigate the case at first since the Alberta Individual Rights Protection Act did not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation. After a long battle in the courts, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously in 1998 that the exclusion of sexual orientation from Alberta's Individual Rights Protection Act was in violation to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, leading to the precedent of sexual orientation being read into Alberta's Individual Rights Protection Act.
1992 - After the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that the failure to include sexual orientation into the Canadian Human Rights Act is discriminatory, Federal Justice Minister Kim Campbell introduced an act, which is later defeated, that would include "sexual orientation" in the Canadian Human Rights Act.
1992 - Gays and lesbians allowed to enter the Canadian armed forces after a Federal Court lifts the ban on homosexuals in the military.
1995 - Ontario became the first province to legalize same-sex adoption when an Ontario Court Judge ruled that the Ontario Child and Family Services Act infringed Section 15 of the Charter by prohibiting applications for same-sex adoptions. British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia follow suit in the following years.
1996 - Bill C-33 was passed adding "Sexual Orientation" to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
1999 - In the case of "M v. H," the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that, in accordance to the Canadian Charter, the word "spouse" should be defined as "two persons" rather than "a man or a woman." Ontario was given 6 months to amend its Family Law Act. In Bill 5, introduced by Attorney General Jim Flaherty, a new same-sex category was created in the Ontario Family Law Act rather than changing the definition of "spouse." The Act was now to read "spouse or same-sex partner" rather than only "spouse." The Bill further amended over 60 other provincial laws, making the rights and responsibilities of same-sex couples the same as opposite-sex common-law couples.
1999 - Despite the Supreme Court's rulings in the case of "M v. H," the federal government ruled in a vote of 216 to 55 to preserve the definition of "marriage" as a union between a man and a woman.

Canadian History Part 2

2000 - The federal government passed Bill C-23 with a vote of 174 to 72 to extend the definition of "common-law relationships" to same-sex couples, giving same-sex couples the same social and tax benefits as opposite-sex couples in common-law relationships. The Bill affected 68 federal statutes including pension benefits, income tax deductions, bankruptcy, old age security and the Canadian Criminal Code.
2000 - The Alberta government passed Bill 202 to declare that it would use the Notwithstanding Clause in the event of a court redefining marriage to include same-sex couples.
2000 - Following Toronto's lead, British Columbia was the first province to ask the courts for guidance on the constitutionality of Canada's ban on same-sex marriage.
2002 - The Durham Catholic District School Board in Ontario banned Marc Hall, a student at Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic High School, from bringing his boyfriend to the school prom. Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert McKinnon ruled that a gay student has the right to bring a date of his choice to his prom, allowing Hall and his boyfriend go the Hall's prom.
2002 - An Ontario Superior Court ruled that prohibiting gay couples from marriage violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is thus unconstitutional. The Court gave the Ontario government 2 years to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. The Ontario government passed the decision onto the federal government.
2002 - In response to the ruling in Ontario, the Alberta government passed a bill to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, and reiterated that it would use the Notwithstanding Clause to avoid recognizing same-sex marriage.
2003 - The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in June that, "the existing common law definition of marriage violates the couple's equality rights on the basis of sexual orientation." Hours later, Michael Leshner and Michael Stark were married in Toronto. Ontario Attorney General Norm Sterling later announced that the province would follow the law and officially register same-sex marriages.
2003 - Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced legislation to legalize same-sex marriages across Canada, while permitting religious organizations the right to "sanctify marriage as they see it." The legislation is sent to the Supreme Court of Canada for review.
2003 - A month after the ruling in Ontario, British Columbia became the second province to legalize same-sex marriage, giving same-sex couples the right to marry immediately. The British Columbia Court of Appeal agreed earlier that the definition of marriage should be changed to a union of "two persons," which would have come into effect a year later.
2003 - The United Church of Canada endorsed same-sex marriage.
2003 - An Ontario court ruled that survivor benefits should be extended retroactively to same-sex couples.
2004 - The Quebec Court of Appeals ruled in favour of same-sex marriage, declaring that the ‘traditional' definition of marriage is discriminatory and unjustified. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador, followed suit, and marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples. New Brunswick extended its definition of marriage to same-sex couples in 2005, making the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alberta and PEI the only provinces not to accept same-sex marriage.
2004 - The first same-sex divorce occurred in Ontario.
2004 - The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal government can change the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, but did not answer whether the Charter required this change.
2005 - The Canadian Armed Forces hosted its first same-sex marriage between two male officers.
2005 - Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act, passed the House of Commons in June with a vote of 158-133. The Bill formally legalized same-sex marriage throughout Canada, making Canada the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage after the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. Bill C-38 became law on July 20, 2005. Opposition Leader Stephen Harper declared that he would revisit the law if his party should form the next government.
2006 - A motion to reopen the same-sex marriage debate tabled by the Conservative government was defeated in the House of Commons with a vote of 175-123.