Abstract

Scholarship on queer activism and communities has tended to focus mainly on gay and lesbian politics and organizations that began establishing themselves in the mid-twentieth century. As a result of the pervasiveness of the hetero/homosexual binary that insists upon a distinct separation between the gay and straight worlds, bisexual people and their historical contributions to the queer community have remained understudied, especially in a Canadian context. This thesis seeks to illuminate histories of bisexual activism and community organizing in Toronto from the 1980s to the 2000s, in the midst of and following the peak years of Canadian gay liberation. It demonstrates how widespread exclusion of bisexual people from the gay rights movement motivated activists to establish support, discussion and advocacy groups that sought to combat bisexual erasure within queer spaces and foster attitudes of pride within the city’s queer community. Through oral history interviews with bisexual activists and other primary source records, it will become evident that bisexual community organizers in Toronto were concerned with creating safe, affirming spaces for bisexual people where their particular issues and experiences could be discussed, while also publicly engaging in educational advocacy that would enhance their visibility. This thesis directly addresses the lack of bisexual presence within the Canadian queer historical record, inviting historians to challenge still-pervasive binary notions of sexuality and expand ideas of who “belongs” and who might be excluded from dominant historical narratives.