A Classified Dance

Saturday, February 18, 1989
The Concert Hall

In 1988, the GCDC drafted a policy regarding racist and sexist behaviour. While archival documents don’t provide a record of what incidents led to this initiative, the policy suggests tension around gender and race at GCDC events.

The draft policy regarding racist and sexist behaviour reads as follows:

As Lesbians and Gay Men, we live in a society that is, all too often, homophobic, racist, and sexist. As participants in the Gay Community Dance Committee, either as volunteers or as patrons, we are working to create an environment in which lesbians and gay men of any minority are not only accepted, but welcomed. 

In order for us to do this, it is important that we avoid comments or actions that are offensive to parts of our community. It is also important for us to recognize that these comments hurt not only the individual or minority singled out, but, since we are a community of minorities, they hurt all of us. 

It is therefore a responsibility of all participants in the GCDC to attempt to avoid comments of a sexist or racist nature, as well as comments that are derogatory toward the other minorities (e.g. clones, drag queens, leathermen) who make up our community. It is also our responsibility, if we hear other people making such comments, to point out to them, in a spirit of helpful tolerance, that such comments are hurtful to all of us, and have no place in a community organisation such as the GCDC.

We live in a broader society that remains racist and sexist, and we are very much still products of that society. Thus, all of us will, from time to time, fail to live up to ideal standards of tolerance and equality. By working together to increase our awareness of the damage done to our community by intolerance, we will, over time, eradicate it. In so doing, we set an example for not only our community, but for society as a whole.