User:Zanimum/LGBT history in Peel

The Region of Peel — which includes the municipalities of Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon — is an area of Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto. Its earliest known LGBTQ organization, Gay Equality Mississauga, was founded in the 1970s.

1970–1979
Mississaugan Elgin Blair was the proprietor of Insight Books, a bookstore in Mississauga's Sheridan Centre mall. By at least 1972, he was selling Toronto gay magazine the body politic.

In 1975, photographer Johnnie Eisen placed an ad, in hopes of creating a Mississauga committee of the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario. This was followed later in the year, with a classified placed by Elgin Blair, that asked "Are you one of the 20,000 gay people languishing in Mississauga?" The latter ad had received "about 20 responses" by January 1976.

In February 1976, the constitution for a group called "Gays of Mississauga" was drafted. It was renamed Gay Equality Mississauga (GEM) in August of that year, and began organizing discussions and social events. In response to a press release announcing the group, Mississauga Times columnist James Bailey wrote a homophobic column titled "Gays simply aren't normal." GEM president Elgin Blair demanded a public apology, but was unsuccessful.

Mississauga News columnist David Scott-Atkinson, who had previously published homophobic columns in the newspaper, interviewed Toronto Area Gays member Harvey Hamburg in October 1976. Scott-Atkinson's on-air comments led to the station being "flooded with complaints." The episode was not repeated, and Hamburg returned the next week "for a more sympathetic interview."

GEM began placing ads in both the gay press and local weeklies, in 1977. The group found it uneasy to acquire meeting space, prompting Blair to attend the Social Planning Council of Peel in March 1977, in hopes of receiving assistance. GEM President Alan Parton was mocked by a shoe salesman at Square One Shopping Centre, while walking past Mankind Shoe Store. A complaint to the head office of Kinney Shoes of Canada led to an immediate apology and the employee's dismissal.The group began placing ads in both the gay press and local weeklies, in 1977. GEM's year concluded with a full page profile in the Mississauga Times, as part of its "Lifestyles in Mississauga" series.The group began placing ads in both the gay press and local weeklies, in 1977.

A variety of parties ran candidates in Brampton during the 1977 Ontario general election, where they would faceoff directly with riding incumbent and Premier of Ontario Bill Davis. Among them was Thérèse Faubert, representing the Trotskyist League for Socialist Action. As a lesbian, Faubert's candidacy made her one of the first two known provincial-level LGBT candidates in Canadian history. Simultaneously, the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario ran a campaign to get gays and lesbians to vote against the incumbent PC government. An elementary school teacher in Toronto, the Toronto Star reported that Faubert "bills herself as an activist for homosexual rights, militant feminist and a Franco-Ontarian." Her election material called for "the Ontario Human Rights Code to bar all discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; stop police harassment and entrapment of gays; stop Ontario's courts' practice of denying child custody rights to lesbian mothers." Faubert placed fifth of six candidates.

Bolton, a community in Caledon, hosted a feminist conference attended by members of Members of Wages Due Lesbians (Toronto).

A screening of The Naked Civil Servant was cancelled by the Mississauga Library Board in February 1978; it was to be accompanied by a discussion on the topic by Blair. The decision was upheld by Mississauga City Council, to criticism by the Canadian Library Association and Mississauga Times. The film eventually screened at a local Unitarian Church, and at the Oakville Public Library. In April 1978, GEM created Gayline West, described in a later publication as "a counselling and information phone line to serve Mississauga, Brampton, and Oakville."

Two acts of discrimination against GEM President John Bodis in 1978 were reported in the media. While he was the club's secretary, and the City was blocking showing The Naked Civil Servant, Bodis received two death threats over the phone. In April, it was reported that Bodis — by then GEM's President — was fired from his role as a purchasing clerk for the City of Toronto. Bodis attributed this action to his sexuality; the firing was later reduced to a suspension.

Between June and August 1978, six men were arrested in a washroom at Rockwood Mall in the Malton area of Mississauga, by Peel Regional Police, and charged with gross indecency. Four of the six also received charges for committing an indecent act. In October of that year, the Brampton Golf and Country Club cancelled a meeting of the Social Planning Council of Peel, when it was learned that GEM members were scheduled to speak. The group endorsed candidates in the 1978 municipal election, in their newsletter GEM News Notes. Hazel McCallion won her first term as Mayor; she had not received their recommendation.

1980–1989
Metropolitan Community Church minister met in Bolton, Caledon in June 1980, to discuss the gay and lesbian Cuban refugees among the Marielitos being held by American military camps.

Karl Von Goetz, League Against Homosexuals, 1980

CGA, U of T, "Whitman in Ontario" event at Erindale Campus, 1980

A variety of homophobic actions within Peel were noted in the mainstream and gay press, in 1980. Two people held an anti-gay protest was held at Brampton's Centennial Mall in January.

Human Rights Coalition and the Working Group on Minority-Police Relations, May 1980

Rev. George Morley forced to resign, after protesting Anglican Church's liberal views towards gays, 1981

1990-1999
Among the eight Canadian clubs for crossdressers, as of the 1990s, was the Monarch Social Club; its address was a Mississauga post box. The group's listing in Canadian Crossdresser magazine noted that it was "a non-sexual support and social group open to all crossdressers."

2000-2009
Around 2007, the "Queer It Up!" event was created. The event moved to Port Credit Memorial Park in 2011, and included a march on Lakeshore Road. The event was run by Associated Youth Services of Peel, the East Mississauga Community Health Centre and Peel HIV/AIDS Network.

2010-2019
In 2011, the Peel Regional Police recorded 52 hate motivated incidents, of which seven were connected to sexual orientation and two based on gender identity. The Peel Pride Committee told The Brampton Guardian that the low number was inaccurate, as many in the community did not report incidents to police, if they weren't open to their family, and that many had trouble proving a hate crime happened.

As of 2012, the Peel Pride Committee reported having issues with booking fundraiser dance-dinner events in Brampton. He suggested that many local venues "seem to have this impression that if they host an LGBT event then they will be branded as a gay bar."

Groups

 * Gay Equality Mississauga (as "Gays of Mississauga", 1975 to 1976, as "Gay Equality Mississauga" 1976 to at least 1981 -1984, also known as "GEM: Gay Community Outreach" as of 1984
 * Gay Married Men's Group (1978 to at least 1979)
 * Gayline West (1978 to at least 1981)
 * Parents of Gays Mississauga (by at least January 1984)
 * Peel HIV/AIDS Network (1992 on)
 * Peel Pride Committee (2002 on)
 * West End Boys (at least 1977)

Notable people
In recent decades, a number of LGBTQ+ residents and former residents of Peel have gained note in the wider public sphere. They include:


 * Paul Ferreira (b. 1973), politician, gay, raised in Brampton
 * Jordan Gavaris, actor, Orphan Black, gay, born and raised in Caledon
 * Gigi Gorgeous (Giselle Loren Lazzarato Getty, b. 1992), actress, Internet personality, transgender woman, attended school in Mississauga
 * Jayna Hefford (b. 1977), retired ice hockey player, lesbian, played for the Mississauga Chiefs and Brampton Thunder hockey teams
 * Adamo Ruggiero (b. 1986), actor, gay, born and raised in Mississauga
 * Scott Thompson (b. 1959), comedian, gay, raised in Brampton

Author Mazo de la Roche lived with Caroline Clement, a close companion. In recent years, there has been speculation about her sexuality, including by the film The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche (2012), but there is no conclusive evidence that their relationship was more than platonic.