The historic We Demand Rally is known by many as the first gay rights demonstration in Canada and often cited as a watershed moment for queer activism in the country.
However, queer people know that Pride, while political, is a celebration of identity and community, and what better place to do that than at Toronto’s own Hanlan’s Point Beach?
While it’s essential to acknowledge the impact of this march on Ottawa, it was Toronto groups, such as Toronto Gay Action (TGA) and the Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT), that planned this demonstration in Ottawa.
While taking input from adjacent queer groups in the country, they celebrated the planning of this event with “Toronto’s First Gay Picnic” at the famous nude beach.
I sat down with David, co-founder of Friends of Hanlan’s, to discuss this beach’s importance to queer people, what gravitates queer people to the space, and how it became the site of the first Pride in Canada.
Queer people in Toronto have been going to Hanlan’s Point Beach for around a century, with a queer community emerging as early as 1937 — after the removal of cottages on the north end of the sandbar, the creation of the island airport, and the shuttering of the amusement park.
“Queer spaces exist on the margins — in the areas less trafficked, unseen, or undesired by wider straight society. The amusement park, being larger than Wonderland in its time, closing overnight and becoming almost abandoned creates a big pocket of nothing which, combined with the nude aspect and seclusion of the beach, creates a safe space for queer people to gather.”
We have proof of this through the documentary Forbidden Love (1992), which chronicles early lesbian life in Canada and is also available to watch for free on the National Film Board’s website. One of the interviewees recalls her time at Hanlan’s in the 1940s and calls it a “gay beach.”
Tabloids, gossip columns, and interviews from the Foolscap Project from the 1950s – 1960s further solidify how central Hanlan’s Point Beach was to the regional queer community.
“Outside of a few people, many assume Hanlan’s has only been a gay space a decade before they showed up — their reference usually pointing to the 70s.”
The island oasis served as a proto-gay bar back when gay bars weren’t prevalent in Toronto, providing a summer destination for queer gathering much like Fire Island and Provincetown are today.
Back in the 1970s, there were a number of queer organizations in Toronto fighting for progress. The TGA, founded in June of 1971, was a young, more radical group that was unsatisfied with the progress the government was making regarding queer rights — and broke away from the mainstream CHAT to push their agenda.
The group, spearheaded by Cheri DiNovo, Brian Waite, and Herb Spiers, invited other queer groups to Toronto for July 31, 1971 to help draft what we now know as the “We Demand” letter — containing 10 actionable steps the government of Canada could take to end discrimination against queer people in housing, employment, and more.
“We hope to have a ‘Gay Day’ in Toronto for Sunday, August 1, as a prelude to the Ottawa Actions,” states the letter.
“Toronto’s First Gay Picnic” was advertised all over the city, with 200 to 300 participants taking the ferry over to Hanlan’s Point Beach for not only a social event, but also to network with other queer people to organize volunteers and funds to get people to the We Demand Rally in Ottawa.
“It’s everything that Pride was about in the early years, both political and celebratory — protest and joy simultaneously. Raising awareness as well as inviting people to gather.”
On August 28, 1971, over 100 activists from across the country marched on Ottawa in the first public gay demonstration, now known as the We Demand Rally, with University of Toronto Homophile Association’s Charlie Hill delivering the main speech as the demands were given to parliament.
Sadly, at the time, these demonstrators were ignored, but every demand has since been won. The We Demand Rally provided a blueprint of unity and strategy for queer movements to gain legal and social victories across Canada.
Now donning a sign to commemorate its history, Hanlan’s Point continues to be the site of many “Gay Day” picnics since the first, monumental one. However, due to erosion and government neglect, the physical site of Canada’s first Pride (near the midpoint of the Rainbow Road) is now lost beneath the waves of Lake Ontario.
Friends of Hanlan’s have been working to get the city to repair the damage before it worsens further and Canada’s oldest surviving queer space is gone for good.
