Learn more about the historical photos on our homepage
Celebrating 50 years of identity, advocacy, and community
As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations, we're updating the image on our homepage throughout the year to highlight pieces of our history and the history of 2SLGBTQ+ people and activism in Winnipeg.
This page will be updated whenever we update the image on our homepage.
For more information on Rainbow Resource Centre's history, click here to read our detailed timeline.
We're also publishing historical posts throughout the year, encapsulating the different decades of Rainbow's history.
- Rainbow Resource Centre in the '70s
- Rainbow Resource Centre in the '80s
- Rainbow Resource Centre in the '90s
September's Feature Image
As part of the Gay Pride March held during the second National Gay Conference—which was also featured in our May and June images, which you can see by scrolling down this page—the March included a rally on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature. This event helped provide a more coherent definition of the gay movement in Canada and allowed an opportunity for the community to gather.
August's Feature Image
Gays for Equality, which would eventually become Rainbow Resource Centre, began as a student group at the University of Manitoba (details in the January section below), but in 1983 Gays for Equality outgrew their space.
In April 1983, Gays for Equality changed its name to the Winnipeg Gay Centre and moved out of the U of M, taking up space on the second floor of 275 Sherbrook St., right next to Giovanni's Room, which was a bar and social hub for the 2SLGBTQ+ community. (Giovanni's Room was later renamed as Gio's, which is how it's often remembered now, and operated until 2013.) This new space on Sherbrook accommodated our library and also provided meeting and counselling space.
In August of 1986, Gio's moved to 616 Broadway and the Winnipeg Gay Centre moved with them. Winnipeg Gay Centre stayed there until August 1986, at which point we left Gio's and moved to 222 Osborne Street South (the red brick building at Confusion Corner) and we again changed our name, now known as Winnipeg Gay/Lesbian Resource Centre.
We changed our name again in 1999 to Rainbow Resource Centre and in 2008 we moved to 170 Scott Street, just a few blocks from the Confusion Corner location. In May 2023, we moved once more to 545 Broadway, just a few blocks from our former shared space with Gio's.
July's Feature Image
Although same-sex marriage was not legalized in Manitoba until September 16, 2004, Chris Vogel and Richard North were married on February 11, 1974, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg. Officiated by Rev. Norman Naylor and witnessed by friends, the ceremony, which included poetry reading and vows, following the Christian tradition of the proclamation of the banns. But this wasn't just any wedding; this was the first same-sex wedding in a church in Canada—a momentous occasion.
However, upon submitting their marriage license to the Government of Manitoba, they were told their marriage could not be registered "because both parties to this event were of the male gender".
Back in 2004, while same-sex couples in Manitoba joined those in other provinces able to marry legally, North and Vogel began a journey to have their original union recognized. The argument for having their marriage recognized was that when they had applied for their marriage license, no law explicitly did not allow for same-sex marriage, only that it hadn't happened before. After the widespread acceptance of same-sex unions in Canada, couples similarly wed, pre-2004, in other jurisdictions had their unions recognized. So, why not North and Vogel's 1974 marriage?
Unfortunately, in 2021, after a Manitoba Human Rights Commission and North had the case reviewed, the marriage was officially declared a nullity—an act or thing that is legally void—and that, at the time of the initial denial of a marriage license, there had been no act of discrimination, only adherence to the law.
The decision came at Pride that year, and it was a devastating blow to human rights activists, the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and the couple, Vogel and North.
Coming up on their 50th anniversary, the couple still regularly call on government and human rights activists to do the right thing as they fight to have their 1974 marriage recognized–the first same-sex union in a church in Canada.
May and June's Feature Images
In 1974, Gays for Equality hosted the second National Gay Conference. As part of this conference, a gay pride march was held, which is considered one of the earliest (if not the earliest) pride marches in Winnipeg, taking place about ten years before Pride Winnipeg's start.
April's Feature Image
Right from the early days, back when Rainbow Resource Centre was Gays For Equality, we were a source of information, community, and connection for Manitoba's 2SLGBTQ+ population.
The Gays for Equality Infoline received up to 2,500 calls per year. Some callers were seeking information and others just wanted to talk. For many, the voice on the phone was the first gay person they'd ever talked to, and the first person they ever came out to.
The Infoline was run by community volunteers and continued right up to the mid-2010s, when calls to the Infoline had dwindled with most inquiries and reach-outs happening via email or social media.
March's Feature Image
From 1973 to 1978, Gays for Equality (which later became Rainbow Resource Centre) published an informational pamphlet that included their mandate, services, and the promotion of gay liberation.
For many 2SLGBTQ+ Manitobans, this pamphlet was their first introduction to the local 2SLGBTQ+ community, and their first step toward becoming a part of the larger community.
The full brochure advertises:
- Counselling and referral
- Special interest groups
- Information, publications
- Speakers/workshop leaders
- Public education
- Civil rights and law reform
- Consultation and research
- Cultural development
February's Feature Image
In 1979, a customer was looking for The Joy of Cooking in Classics Bookstore and was appalled when she accidentally picked up The Joy of Gay Sex, and subsequently complained to the police.
Using obscenity laws and the threat of charges, police tried to ban The Joy of Gay Sex from Classics Bookstore and Coles. However, in 1980 a protest against this attempted ban was led by the 2SLGBTQ+ community and another bookstore, Liberation Books. The drive to fight censorship and the squashing of human rights reached beyond the 2SLGBTQ+ community, leading to many non-2SLGBTQ+ folks joining the protest.
Though Liberation Books was not part of the initial ban and threat of charges, Liberation continued to sell The Joy of Gay Sex throughout this ordeal in the hopes that police would include them in the threat of prosecution so that this could be forced into court and queer literature could ultimately be deemed not obscene.
However, the protest was successful and Winnipeg Police dropped the threat of obscenity charges and rescinded the order to ban the book, and this question of censorship never reached courts.
January's Feature Image
To kick off our fiftieth year, it makes sense to start right at the beginning.
In 1972, the Campus Gay Club was born at the University of Manitoba. This group was social in nature, a way for gay and lesbian students at the university to connect with each other.
However, there was a recognized need for more activism, public education, and outreach. In 1973, Phil Graham established Gays for Equality, which would evolve over the decades to eventually become the Rainbow Resource Centre we know and love today.
For more information on our bold beginnings, click here to read about Rainbow in the seventies. Throughout 2023 we will post summaries of each of our decades to celebrate where we've come from.
Image Credits
All images are used under a Creative Commons license and were accessed from the Manitoba Gay and Lesbian Archives.
The specific individual credits are listed below:
“Gays for Equality Bulletin Board”; Gays for Equality; 1981. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Gays for Equality People”; Gays for Equality; Nicholson, Doug; Aug. 1980. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Censorship Demonstration”; Fewster, Glenn; Winnipeg Gay Media Collective; Nov. 1, 1980. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Gays for Equality”; Gays for Equality; undated. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Gays for Equality Information Line”; Gays for Equality; 1981. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Info-line Advertisement”; unattributed; undated. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Winnipeg Gay Pride March 1974”; Gays for Equality; Aug. 31, 1974. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Winnipeg Gay Pride March 1974”; Gays for Equality; Aug. 31, 1974. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Gays for Equality People”; Gays for Equality; Nicholson, Doug; Aug. 1980. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Gays for Equality People”; Gays for Equality; Nicholson, Doug; Aug. 1980. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Giovanni’s Room”; Fewster, Glenn; 1983. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Winnipeg Gay Pride March 1974”; Gays for Equality; Aug. 31, 1974. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Winnipeg Gay Media Collective Staff”; Winnipeg Gay Media Collective; Feb. 1981. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Canadian Human Rights Commission Sit-in”; Steffenson, Ken; undated. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...
“Gay Pride Demonstration”; unattributed; undated. Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0. https://digitalcollections.lib...