By Hannah Barrie and Jungsim Ko
The Gay Street Patrol, later renamed the Toronto Gay Patrol (TGP), originally formed in the summer of 1981 after the bathhouse raids in Toronto (Demers 32). Five members of the Legal Coordination Committee of the Right to Privacy Committee, an advocacy group created in the aftermath of the bathhouse raids, met on April 4, 1981 to form the Gay Street Patrol (Hooper 232). These men, Elan Rosenquist, Findlay, Paul Rapsey, Allan Clapp, and John Burt, formed the group with six main goals. They sought to:
- patrol streets and laneways where violence was known to occur;
- come to the aid of any victims;
- follow a non-violent policy;
- assist police in making arrests;
- assist and aid in delivering medical care;
- assist victims in the process of laying a criminal charge (232-233).
A large poster with accompanying flyers advertising the Toronto Gay Patrol, from the ArQuives (previously known as the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives), 1984. (ArQuives)