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John was born in Maxville, Ontario but was a Torontonian since his boyhood days. John’s contribution to our gay and lesbian heritage spanned four decades and encompassed many roles. He was a pioneering activist, a tireless organizer, an inspiring…

Gay activist, twenty year volunteer with Gays of Ottawa; co-author of Gays and the Law, founding member of the Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights in Ontario and the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Rights Coalition, recipient of the John Damien Award in 1992,…

Singer, composer and actor, k.d. lang is a lesbian icon whose influence reaches far beyond Canada's borders. Born in Consort, Alberta, lang was the first mainstream celebrity in North America to come out as a lesbian, against the advice of many who…

Robert Laliberté, a Montreal-based photographer, has established an international reputation as a photographer of the male nude. Since 1987, his evocative male nudes have appeared on each cover of Montreal's Fugues magazine. He has served as a…

Born in 1951 in Aylmer, Quebec, David Kelley began working for the Ottawa Youth Services Bureau upon graduation from Carleton University in 1972. It was at the bureau, in 1977, that he met Tom Stewart, the man who would be his life partner for 19…

Born in the United States in 1942, Richard Hudler is a social worker and an activist who has been working tirelessly to advocate for gay and lesbian rights since immigrating to Canada in 1971.

Working for 5 years in Goderich as a counsellor for…

"Thirty years ago I didn't want tolerance. I didn't want my lover and companion Ron Shearer and I to be tolerated. Nor did I want other lesbians and gay men to be merely tolerated. I wanted us, all of us, to be understood and acknowledged and yes,…

"In 1969 when I became President of the University of Toronto Homophile Association, I identified myself, both personally and publicly, as a gay male. In my work in the gay movement in Toronto and Ottawa up to the mid 1970s I sought to come to terms…

Tolerance, for me, is sitting on a subway train in the middle of the day right here in Toronto, the city of my choice, and to look up from my reading and realize, out of the blue, that everyone in this car is of a different colour, of skin I mean, of…

Gens Hellquist is a pioneer of gay liberation in Canada having started the first queer organization in Saskatoon in 1971. He is currently executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition, a national non-profit addressing the health…