Slippery When Wet

Saturday, September 12, 1987
The Concert Hall

“We supported all the different AIDS organisations. They helped publicise information and recommendations and all that.”

- Rob Stout, GCDC Organiser

In the 1980s, the community response to HIV/AIDS in Toronto had two dimensions. First, activists organised and ran HIV/AIDS service organisations. These were often started by veteran queer activists who had organizing experience and  skills. These early AIDS organisations, such as the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT, founded in 1983) and the People With AIDS Foundation (PWA, founded in 1987), brought activists together with social service-focused support workers who wanted to assist dying friends. These organizations were also ways for dedicated groups of lesbians and straight allies to create networks of care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Eventually, following incredible pressure from activists, these groups began to receive government funding. ACT organiser Ed Jackson tells us that while helpful, access to funding made it more difficult for these groups to pressure inactive government bodies. Second, more militant activist organisations developed. These groups, such as AIDS Action Now (founded in 1988), did not rely on government funding and were freer to criticise government inaction. 

While many GCDC participating groups used funds they raised to organise and disseminate information to the community about HIV/AIDS in the mid- and late-1980s, a few were explicitly focused on this issue. These groups included the ACT, PWA, the Gay Asian AIDS Project, and the Toronto AIDS Drop-in Centre. Although not a participating group, AIDS Action Now requested a table at the GCDC Pride dance in 1988.

"The height of GCDC was the AIDS years. It was the early years when I was at the AIDS Committee of Toronto, it was extremely chaotic. It was incredibly difficult–so many people coming in, so many people dying, so many buddies supporting people who were not well. We were trying to do the educational stuff. The dances might have been a cathartic event to just go and just not think about all that, but to just dance away.”

- Ed Jackson, GCDC Attendee