Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T23:48:37.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Movements and Equality Seeking: The Case of Gay Liberation in Canada*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Miriam Smith
Miriam Smith
Affiliation:
Carleton University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on social movement politics in Canada using the case of the gay liberation movement. Drawing on the comparative social movement literature, the article situates equality seeking as a strategy and meaning game that legitimates new political identities and that is aimed at mobilizing a movement's constituency. The article demonstrates that equality seeking was a strategy and a meaning frame that was deployed in the lesbian and gay rights movement (exemplified by the gay liberation movement of the 1970s) prior to the entrenchment of the Charter. Thus, it concludes that some claims about the Charter's impact on social movement organizing have been exaggerated.

Résumé

Le présent article analyse l'incidence de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés sur les activités politiques des mouvements sociaux au Canada à la lumière du mouvement de libération gaie. S'appuyant sur les études comparées des mouvements sociaux, l'article présente la lutte pour I' égalité comme une stratégic et un cadre sémantique qui légitime de nouvelles identité politiques et qui vise à mobiliser la base du mouvement. L'article démontre que la lutte pour l'égalité a constitué une stratégie et un cadre sémantique déployé par le mouvement de défense des droits des gais est des lesbiennes (comme en témoigne le mouvement de libération gaie des années soixante-dix) et ce, bien avant l'enchâssement de la Charte. Il appert, par conséquent, que certaines assertions attribuent à la Charte une influence exagérée sur l'organization des mouvement sociaux.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 1998 , pp. 285 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Russell, Peter H., “Overcoming Legal Formalism: The Treatment of the Constitution, the Courts and Judicial Behaviour in Canadian Political Science,” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 1 (1986), 5–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 In general, the Critical Legal Studies school has focused on these questions. This is a vast literature, but see Mandel, Michael, The Charter of Rights and the Legalization of Politics in Canada (rev. ed.; Toronto: Thompson, 1994)Google Scholar; and Hutchinson, Allan, Waiting for Coraf: A Critique of Law and Rights (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

3 Manfredi, Christopher P., Judicial Power and the Charter: Canada and the Paradox of Liberal Constitutionalism (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993)Google Scholar.

4 Bourque, Gilles, “La sociologie, l'État, la nation,” Cahiers de recherche sociologique 14 (1990), 43–65Google Scholar.

5 Knopff, Rainer and Morton, F. L., Charter Politics (Scarborough: Nelson, 1992), 79ffGoogle Scholar.

6 Mandel, The Charter of Rights, 4 and 337ff. For a review of this literature, see Sigurdson, Richard, “Left- and Right-Wing Charterphobia in Canada: A Critique of the Critics,” International Journal of Canadian Studies 7–8 (1993), 95–116Google Scholar.

7 Hutchinson, Allan C., “Supreme Court, Inc.,” Literary Review of Canada 3 (1994), 6Google Scholar.

8 Kitschelt, H., “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies,” British Journal of Political Science 16 (1986), 57–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Tarrow, Sidney, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

9 Cited in McAdam, Doug, McCarthy, John D. and Zald, Mayer N., “Introduction,” in McAdam, Doug et al. , eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 McAdam, Doug, “Conceptual Origins, Current Problems, Future Directions,” in McAdam, et al. , eds., Comparative Perspectives, 25–26Google Scholar.

11 Thelen, Kathleen and Steino, Sven, “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics,” in Thelen, Kathleen and Steinmo, Sven, eds., Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 1–32Google Scholar.

12 Cairns, Alan C., Disruptions: Constitutional Struggles from the Charter to Meech, ed. by Williams, Douglas E. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1991)Google Scholar.

13 Allan Hutchinson has provided the most complete discussion of the “rights talk” in the Canadian context (Hutchinson, Waiting for Coraf, 28ff.).

14 Roach, Kent, “The Role of Litigation and the Charter in Interest Advocacy,” in Seidle, F. Leslie, ed., Equity and Community: The Charter, Interest Advocacy and Representation (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1993), 160Google Scholar.

15 Gay liberation was the term used by gay rights groups themselves during the 1970s. Thereafter, the term gay liberation disappeared in large part (although not completely) from the lexicon of lesbian and gay politics in the 1980s and 1990s.

16 For example, Morton, F. L., “To Bring Judicial Appointments out of the Closet,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), September 22, 1997, A19Google Scholar.

17 Rayside, David M. and Lindquist, Evert A., “AIDS Activism and the State in Canada,” Studies in Political Economy 39 (1992), 37–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Rayside, David, “Gay Rights and Family Values: The Passage of Bill 7 in Ontario,” Studies in Political Economy 26 (1988), 109–147CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Herman, Didi, Rights of Passage: Struggles for Lesbian and Gay Legal Equality (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 24Google Scholar. For similar generalizations about organizing, see Eaton, Mary, “Lesbians, Gays and the Struggle for Equality Rights: Reversing the Progressive Hypothesis,” Dalhousie Law Journal 17 (1994), 130–186Google Scholar.

19 Adam, Barry D., The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement (rev. ed.; Boston: Twayne, 1995), 82Google Scholar.

20 Rights and liberation may be antithetical strategies or contradictory ideologies today. The debate on the political and legal efficacy of rights claims in the current context of queer politics is beyond the scope of this article.

21 Scheingold, Stuart A., The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy and Political Change (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974), 148Google Scholar.

22 Rosenberg, Gerald N., The Hollow Hope (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

23 Specifically, the primary material presented here is based on two years of research in the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (Toronto), the Canadian Women's Movement Archives (Ottawa), over 35 interviews with movement activists from the 1970s and 1980s and a reading of every major lesbian and gay publication of the period that was published in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver in English and French.

24 The Coalition was renamed the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition in 1978. To avoid confusion, I will simply use the name NGRC throughout.

25 Brief footage of this demonstration can be seen in the film Jim Loves Jack: The James Egan Story (Toronto: David Adkins Productions, n.d.)Google Scholar.

26 Waite, Brian, “Strategy for Gay Liberation,” The Body Politic 3 (1972), 4Google Scholar. The Body Politic (1971–1987) was Canada's premier gay liberation publication and played an important role in the development of the Canadian lesbian and gay rights movement.

27 Ibid.

28 Editorial, “Never Going Back,” The Body Politic 8 (1973), 2Google Scholar.

29 Interview, Chris Bearchell, February 8–9, 1996.

30 There were several organizations at this time in different parts of the country that used the GATE name. They are usually differentiated by appending their locales, for example, GATE Vancouver and GATE Toronto.

31 Rayside and Lindquist, “AIDS Activism.”

32 Higgins, Ross, “L'impasselinguistique,” Sortie 14 (1984), 10–11Google Scholar.

33 “National Gay Election Coalition,” The Body Politic 6 (Autumn 1972), 11Google Scholar.

34 Interview, Tom Warner, September 19, 1995.

35 Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), National Gay Rights Coalition, Proposal for a National Gay Rights Coalition, 1.

36 “No Small Accomplishment,” The Body Politic 14 (1974), 2Google Scholar.

37 CLGA, National Gay Rights Coalition, Statement of Principles, Structure and Programme of the National Gay Rights Coalition, adopted June 29–30, 1975Google Scholar and amended September 4–6, 1976, 1.

38 Ibid., 4–5.

39 Ibid., 6.

40 CLGA, NGRC Forum, Bulletin of the National Gay Rights Coalition, 2 (1977), 1Google Scholar.

41 For example, CLGA, Community Briefs, Gay Community Centre (Saskatoon), The Homosexual Minority in Saskatchewan (June 1976); GATE Edmonton, Homosexuals: A Minority without Rights (March 1, 1976); and Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, Discrimination and the Gay Minority (Brief to members of the Ontario Legislature, March 1978).

42 CLGA, Community Briefs, Manitoba Homosexuals: A Minority without Rights (Brief presented to the Attorney General of Manitoba and the Manitoba Human Rights Commission by Gays for Equality, Winnipeg, 1974), 10.

43 Ross, Becki, The House that Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995), 164–165Google Scholar.

44 Rayside, “Gay Rights and Family Values.”

45 Howe, R. Brian, “The Evolution of Human Rights Policy in Ontario,” this Journal 24 (1991), 783–802Google Scholar.

46 CLGA, Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, 82–07/01/13, “Letter to Gays of Ottawa from GATE” (emphasis in the original).

47 CLGA, Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, “Memo to groups,” August 23, 1976.

48 CLGA, Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, 82–017/01/4, “Working Paper for Provincial Affairs Workshop.”

49 CLGA, Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, 82–017/01/13, “CGRO Strategy to Put Sexual Orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code—Phase 2,” September 4, 1977.

50 CLGA, Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, “CGRO: Success or Failure?”

51 Bruner, Arnold, “Sexual Orientation and Equality Rights,” in Bayefsky, Anne F. and Eberts, Mary, eds., Equality Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Toronto: Carswell, 1985), 460–461Google Scholar; Herman, Rights of Passage, 23; and Popert, Ken, “John Damien,” The Body Politic 135 (1987), 15Google Scholar.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid.

54 On the bath raids and The Body Politic trials, see Jackson, Ed and Persky, Stan, eds., Flaunting It! A Decade of Journalism from The Body Politic (Vancouver and Toronto: New Star Books and Pink Triangle Press, 1982)Google Scholar; McGaskell, Tim, “The Bath Raids and Gay Politics,” in Cunningham, Frank, ed., Social Movements, Social Change: The Politics and Practice of Organizing (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1988), 169–188Google Scholar; and Kinsman, Gary, The Regulation of Desire: Homo and Hetero Sexualities (2nd ed.; Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1996), 338ffGoogle Scholar.

55 See, for example, GATE's constitution, Archives Collective (Vancouver), Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE), “Constitution,” 1971, 1973.

56 Black, W. W., “Gay Alliance Toward Equality v. Vancouver Sun,” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 17 (1979), 649Google Scholar.

57 Richstone, Jeff and Russell, J. Stuart, “Shutting the Gate: Gay Civil Rights in the Supreme Court of Canada,” McGill Law Journal 97 (1981), 92–117Google Scholar; Goreham, Richard A., “Human Rights Code of British Columbia,” Canadian Bar Review 59 (1981), 165–179Google Scholar; and Kopyto, Harry, “The Gay Alliance Case Reconsidered,” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 18 (1980), 639–652Google Scholar.

58 “Gate vs. Sun: A Chronology of the Case,” Gay Tide 17 (1977), 2–3Google Scholar; and “Supreme Court to Hear First Gay Rights Case,” The Body Politic 43 (1978), 7Google Scholar.

59 “On to the Supreme Court,” Gay Tide 17 (1977), 2–3Google Scholar.

60 Interview, Don Hann, February 14, 1996.

61 “Gatevs.sun,”2.

62 Dayman, Ron, “Québec: Five Years of the Movement,” The Body Politic 29 (1976), 20–23Google Scholar; Higgins, Ross, “Pour une histoire gaie de Montréal,” Sortie 4 (March 1983), 7Google Scholar; “Du bon boulot. … et un peu d'essoufflement,” Le Berdache 5 (November 1979), 3Google Scholar; and “Les gai(e)s du Québec protestent,” Le Devoir (Montreal), October 24, 1977, 6Google Scholar.

63 Le Berdache 22 (1981), 38 (emphasis in the original)Google Scholar.

64 Ibid., 46.

65 Barbeau, François, “Les homosexuels réclament une nouvelle formulation des droits civils,” Le Devoir (Montreal) October 27, 1977, 9Google Scholar; Garneau, Gilles, “Victoire pour les gais,” Le Berdache 6 (1979–1980), 7–9Google Scholar; and Russell, Stuart and Lynch, Michael, “Gay Rights: Oui!” The Body Politic 40 (1978), 4–5Google Scholar.

66 Garneau, “Victoire pour les gais,” 7.

67 Ibid.

68 “Éditorial,” Le Berdache 3 (1979), 1Google Scholar.

69 “1980: une menace, une promesse,” Le Berdache 7 (February 1980), 3Google Scholar.

70 Garneau, “Victoire pour les gais,” 7–9. See also Dupleé, Nicole “Homosexuality et droits a l' égalité dans les Chartes canadienne et queébeécoise,” Les Cahiers de droit 25 (1984), 836ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 Ross Higgins discusses the reasons for a distinct gay politics in Quebec in “L'impasse linguistique,” Sortie 14 (1984), 9–10Google Scholar.

72 Lynch, Michael, “The End of the ‘Human Rights’ Decade,” The Body Politic 54 (1979), 25–26Google Scholar.

73 Ibid., 26.