Mardi Gras: A Costume Ball

Saturday, March 26, 1983
The Concert Hall

The bathouse raids of 1981 were not the only instances of violence targeting the  lesbian and gay communities in Toronto and surrounding areas. In fact, bashing increased so significantly in the early 1980s that the Right to Privacy Committee (RTPC) established the Gay Street Patrol, a group of gays and lesbians who would patrol streets and alleys to protect community members from violence. RTPC member John Burt tells the publication Action! in April 1981 that at least one violent bashing was being reported per day–with many more likely going unreported. 

At the same time that physical violence was increasing, far-right activism against gays and lesbians was also on the rise. Vitriolic hate campaigns by both Positive Parents of Ontario and the League Against Homosexuals echoed anti-gay campaigns taking place in the United States during the 1980s. They took particular aim at gays and lesbians in Toronto. For example, Positive Parents of Ontario  led the charge to ban blood donations from gay men and campaigned for public health warnings to be posted at venues frequented by gay men. They also distributed manifesto-style “fact sheets” linking homosexuality to child molestation and campaigned against any political figure who seemed sympathetic to homosexual rights.  

In this broader era of anti-gay activism and physical violence, GCDC dances did something relatively simple: they allowed lesbian and gay individuals in Toronto to see the sheer size of the communities in which they were a part. At GCDC events, lesbian and gay Torontonians were able to experience collective joy in a particularly brutal and dangerous era. As we have learned from speaking with dancers, DJs, and organizers from that period, this is no minor thing: GCDC dances enabled a sense of collective belonging, agency, and political power that informed how lesbians and gays in Toronto lived their lives long after the dances ended. Furthermore, funds raised at GCDC dances enabled a variety of gay and lesbian community organizations to do their work: the Mardi Gras dance, for example, raised $8,937 that was split among participating groups to fund a variety of ongoing projects. 

“GCDC dances were, on the most part, a lot of fun and always a good escape. Walking up Yonge Street wasn’t always pleasant. There were lots of incidents of homophobic language hurled at us and sometimes even fights.”

- Bob Harrison Drue, GCDC DJ