On Saturday February 5, 1983, the Gay Community Dance Committee (GCDC) held “Soap: A Remembrance of the 1981 Bath Raids” (Jennex and Eswaran 187). Exactly two years earlier, on February 5, 1981, the Toronto police raided four bathhouses in what was called “Operation Soap.” Over 300 men were arrested in the raids, with 286 charged for being found in a common bawdy house and 20 for operating a bawdy house.
Canada Refuses to Acknowledge State Violence, We Refuse to Forget
In a time where the Canadian government loudly proclaims its tolerance and acceptance of 2SLGBTQ+ people, it can be hard for those of us who didn’t live through these raids to understand the hatred and malice expressed towards queer people by the state. Canada has a shining image to keep up—the government and patriotic public don’t want us to remember the state-sanctioned violence performed against queer people (or to recognize ongoing violences, for that matter). The “Equality Dollar” was rolled out in 2019, marking 50 years since homosexuality had been decriminalized in Canada (Jennex and Eswaran 231). This celebration of decriminalization ignored the fact that the men arrested in the 1981 bathhouse raids were charged with being found in a common bawdy house, a bawdy house being a place “kept for the purposes of prostitution or for the practice of acts of indecency” (Jennex and Eswaran 158). With no incidents of sex work found in these raids, we’re left to assume that consensual sex between adult men was still considered an indecent act over a decade after “decriminalization.”
Add this onto the pile of reasons we must remember—not only remember the violence, but also queer resistance.
Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Cops in a Tub
Queer folks have long known the importance of remembering and resisting, as proved by the tickets for the GCDC’s “Soap.” The bubblegum pink ticket features sudsy lettering spelling out the event’s title, referencing Operation Soap. Illustrated next to the title is a wooden tub filled with pigs getting washed. The police officer’s hats on the pigs make it clear that the cartoon depicts the violent, dirty cops in a much needed bath, rather than the gay men who were arrested in the bathhouses. Although the dance was a remembrance of the 1981 raids, this image adds a fun, snarky element, setting a joyful but defiant tone for the event.
On the surface, a “lesbian and gay dance” as the ticket refers to it might not seem like a space for protest and resistance. We can compare it to the Toronto Gay Street Patrol for example, which was started in May of 1981 to promote self-defence and patrol downtown and the Gay Village to prevent homophobic violence (Jennex and Eswaran 202). This seems like a much more clear form of resistance to violences, but even the Street Patrol recognized the importance of socialization within their movements.
Although this event had the goal of learning self-defence, 45 minutes of socializing was advertised as one of the three main parts of the evening. This was perhaps to entice folks to come, but also perhaps a recognition of the importance of fostering collectivity in resistance.
Come Dancing (Yeah, Gay Does Mean Happy)
The GCDC was formed in February of 1981, with a goal to “encourage small, independent gay and lesbian organizations in Toronto to collaborate to host dance-party fundraisers larger than any one group could hold on its own” (Jennex and Eswaran 186). Proceeds were split between the groups who helped run the events, which often helped to fund protests and community supports. Beyond their monetary importance however, these dances brought together queer folks in a space that was created for them to move, connect, and celebrate freely with one another. A brief article on the GCDC in The Body Politic referenced the success of the first dance, and the title—“Dancin’ those blues away”—highlights the joy that can be found in collective dance, much needed in the face of vitriol and hate from a cis/het public.
The act of gathering itself can then be viewed as an act of resistance, when the violences enacted against queer folks so often involved invading presumed private spaces in order to expose and separate, in the case of the bathhouse raids, gay men. The GCDC created and promoted a public space for gay men and lesbians to dance and enjoy their social life unabashedly. Although their tickets for Soap (and posters for Soap II) took up the work of remembering the bathhouse raids, other posters practiced different forms of resistance in their refusal to be silent: bright colours, the reclamation of insults like “fairy,” and pop culture images made queer like the Tin Man and Scarecrow in an embrace called on folks to attend these uniquely queer and happy spaces.
“Policing Requires Building Mutual Trust,” and Other Bullshit
The colour pink and the pink triangle were reclaimed in many ways, including the Soap ticket and the poster above, after their former use to mark gay prisoners in Nazi concentration camps (Licata and Petersen 138). Despite the use of the pink triangle as a symbol of pride, echoes of this particular violence against queer folks remained. Among the police brutality of the 1981 bathhouse raids, one cop directly referenced Nazi concentration camps, saying
“I wish these pipes were hooked up to gas so I could annihilate you all.”
A few decades later in 2016, Toronto police chief Mark Saunders offered up an official statement of regret for Operation Soap (Jennex and Eswaran 235). Regret, of course, isn’t quite the same as an apology. So rather than accept a non-apology, instead of being grateful for the façade of acceptance, we can choose to remember the violences of the 1981 bathhouse raids. We can choose to remember the many forms of resistance practiced by queer folks at that time, and to honour the joyful collectivity they created through gay community dances.
Works Cited
Benson, Denise. “Then & Now: Stages.” Then & Now, 29 October 2014, http://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/10/then-now-stages/.
Bradburn, Jamie. “Toronto Bathhouse Raids (1981).” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 3 February 2018, https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/toronto-feature-bathhouse-raids.
“Dancin’ Those Blues Away.” The Body Politic, May 1981, pp. 14, https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic73toro/page/14/mode/2up.
“Defensercize!” Body Politic, no. 101, 1984, p. 27. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, https://link-gale-com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/apps/doc/NRTXNR179999654/AHSI?u=ocul_mcmaster&sid=AHSI&xid=990ac70e.
Gone with the Wiz: A Lesbian and Gay Dance. 9 Sept. 1989. TS Posters from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 373;1989-472 N. Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/COFRCY770443548/AHSI?u=ocul_mcmaster&sid=AHSI&xid=7a69d895.
Jennex, Craig and Nisha Eswaran. Out North. Vancouver, Figure 1 Publishing, 2020.
Licata, S and Robert P. Petersen. “Stigma of Degeneration.” The Gay Past, Routledge, 1985, pp. 135-139, https://doi-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/10.4324/9781315880600.
“Operation Soap.” The ArQuives, https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/exhibits/show/nancy-nicol/-operation-soap.
Pumpkin Faerie Parade. 31 Oct. 1987. TS Posters from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 2346;1993-081/14 N. Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/NFPRSJ718332040/AHSI?u=ocul_mcmaster&sid=AHSI&xid=58bc1825.
“Soap.” MC 4.4 Folder 46, 1989-536 Posters Collection. The ArQuives, Toronto, https://arquives.andornot.com/en/permalink/descriptions10527.
Star Gays [Dance]. 20 Mar. 1982. TS Posters from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 427;1989-533 N. Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/JGSQDX576972101/AHSI?u=ocul_mcmaster&sid=AHSI&xid=68662639.
@TheArQuives. “35 years ago today…” Twitter, 4 February 2019, 5:25 p.m., https://twitter.com/TheArQuives/status/1092549624857092098.
“Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders Apologizes for 1981 Gay Bathhouse Raids.” CBC, 22 June 2016, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/police-apology-raids-1.3647668.
Waxman, Olivia. “How the Nazi Regime’s Pink Triangle Symbol was Repurposed for LGBTQ Pride.” Time, 31 May 2018, https://time.com/5295476/gay-pride-pink-triangle-history/.