Among Friends

Saturday, July 16, 1983
The Concert Hall

Ten years after establishing their Toronto congregation, the lesbian and gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) hosted an international conference in the city from July 11-17, 1983. The GCDC capitalised on this conference and called their July 16, 1983 dance “Among Friends.” Advertisements for this dance featured an image of a Mountie flying a GCDC flag, and welcomed Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches delegates. 

MCC began performing same-sex marriages in the mid-1970s–long before same-sex marriage seemed like a legal possibility. In 2001, the MCC married two same-sex couples and challenged the Registrar General of Ontario for refusing the register the marriage documents. This case, which was heard by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and, ultimately, the Ontario Court of Appeal, ushered in same-sex marriage rights for the province of Ontario as the higher court ruled that the excluding same-sex couples from marriage rights violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Brent Hawkes, MCC leader from 1977 to 2017, has been a longtime gay activist in Toronto. 

Bob Harrison Drue, a regular DJ at GCDC dances (and at bars around the city), spun records on the upstairs dance floor during the Among Friends dance. A recording of his sets, which feature music by Three Degrees, Sylvester, Donna Summer, Madonna, and many more, can be found here.