View source for Gay Alliance Toward Equality

{{more citations needed|date=November 2013}}

{{Infobox organization
| name                = Gay Alliance Toward Equality
| abbreviation        = GATE
| motto               = 
| predecessor         = 
| merged              = 
| successor           = 
| formation           = 1971
| founder             = [[Maurice Flood]]
| founding_location   = [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]]
| dissolved           = 1980
| type                = 
| purpose             = 
| headquarters        = 
| location            = 
| region              = 
}}

The '''Gay Alliance Toward Equality''', or '''GATE''', was one of the first [[Canada|Canadian]] [[gay liberation]] groups.<ref name=flaunting>Ed Jackson and [[Stan Persky]], ''Flaunting It! 1964-1982: A Decade of Gay Journalism from [[The Body Politic (magazine)|The Body Politic]]''. [[Pink Triangle Press]], 1982.</ref>

Formed in spring 1971 in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]] by [[Maurice Flood]], GATE was the first Canadian gay group to explicitly discuss and plan [[civil rights]] strategies for achieving [[gay]] and [[lesbian]] equality under Canadian law. Autonomous groups with the same name were subsequently set up in other cities in Canada, including [[Edmonton]] and [[Toronto]];<ref name=flaunting /> 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 the ''[[Vancouver Sun]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s refusal to allow for a paid advertisement for the GATE newspaper, ''Gay Tide''.<ref>{{cite archive |item =Gay Alliance Towards Equality (GATE) - "Gay Tide" case  |item-url=https://biblio.uottawa.ca/atom/index.php/gay-alliance-towards-equality-gate-gay-tide-case |item-id=CA ON0034 10-001-S1-F1002  |date=1977-1979 |box=27-47 |collection=Women's Movement Archives |collection-url=https://biblio.uottawa.ca/atom/index.php/canadian-womens-movement-archives |institution=University of Ottawa |location =Ottawa ON}}</ref> This would become the first gay rights case to reach the [[Supreme Court of Canada]], although the judges ruled 6-3 in favour of the Vancouver Sun.<ref name=flaunting />

Other prominent activities taken on by the group included picketing various [[human rights commission]]s over the lack of [[human rights]] protection for [[sexual orientation]] under Canadian law,<ref name=flaunting /> and taking on an advocacy role in the [[wrongful dismissal]] suit of [[John Damien]] when the Ontario Racing Commission fired him as a racing steward because of his sexuality.<ref name=flaunting />

The Toronto group led a successful campaign in 1973 to lobby [[Toronto 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.<ref>"City Bars Job Discrimination", ''The Body Politic'', no. 10, 1973.</ref>

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's [[1979 British Columbia general election|1979 provincial election]], in the [[electoral district (Canada)|electoral district]] of [[West Vancouver-Howe Sound]].<ref name=invsout>EVERITT, J., & CAMP, M. (2014). "In versus Out: LGBT Politicians in Canada". ''[[Journal of Canadian Studies]]'', 48(1), 226-251.</ref> 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;<ref name=invsout /> 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.<ref name=flaunting />

==See also==
{{Portal|LGBTQ}}
*[[LGBT rights in Canada]]
*[[List of LGBT rights organisations]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* ''[https://arquives.andornot.com/en/permalink/descriptions24307 Gay Alliance Toward Equality (Vancouver) fonds at The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives]''

{{LGBT culture in Vancouver}}
{{LGBT in Canada}}

[[Category:Organizations established in 1971]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in 1980]]
[[Category:LGBTQ political advocacy groups in Canada]]
[[Category:Provincial political parties in British Columbia]]
[[Category:LGBTQ history in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Vancouver]]
[[Category:1971 establishments in British Columbia]]
[[Category:1980 disestablishments in Canada]]