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| Abbreviation | GATE |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1971 |
| Founder | Maurice Flood |
| Founded at | Vancouver,British Columbia |
| Dissolved | 1980 |
TheGay Alliance Toward Equality, orGATE, was one of the firstgay liberation groups inCanada.[1]
Formed in spring 1971 inVancouver,British Columbia byMaurice Flood, GATE was the first Canadian gay group to explicitly discuss and plancivil rights strategies for achievinggay andlesbian equality under Canadian law. Autonomous groups with the same name were subsequently set up in other cities in Canada, includingEdmonton andToronto;[1] in some cities, the local GATE chapter was the first locally oriented LGBT organization to be established.
One of the first high-profile cases launched for gay rights in Canada was launched by the Vancouver chapter of GATE in response to theVancouver Sun's refusal to allow for a paid advertisement for the GATE newspaper,Gay Tide.[2] This would become the first gay rights case to reach theSupreme Court of Canada, although the judges ruled 6-3 in favour of the Vancouver Sun.[1]
Other prominent activities taken on by the group included picketing varioushuman rights commissions over the lack ofhuman rights protection forsexual orientation under Canadian law,[1] and taking on an advocacy role in thewrongful dismissal suit ofJohn Damien when the Ontario Racing Commission fired him as a racing steward because of his sexuality.[1]
The Toronto group led a successful campaign in 1973 to lobbyToronto City Council to adopt a policy forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in municipal hiring, making the city the first jurisdiction in Canada to do so.[3]
In its later years, GATE also undertook some activities as a political party. One activist, Robert Douglas Cook, ran as a GATE candidate in British Columbia's1979 provincial election, in theelectoral district ofWest Vancouver-Howe Sound.[4] He has been credited by media sources in the past as the first openly gay candidate ever to run for political office in Canadian history;[4] however, he was merely the first to run as a candidate of a specifically gay-identified political organization, and was in fact preceded by at least two openly gay candidates for traditional political parties, and at least four openly gay candidates for non-partisan municipal offices.
The group dissolved in 1980.[1]
