Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada's LGBT Purge (Level 1 Gallery)

Stories of injustice and the activists who fought to change Canada

January 31, 2025 to early 2026

A large group of protestors march through a city while two uniformed RCMP officers keep watch. In this black-and-white image, the protestors' signs and banners call for an end to discriminatory practices against members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community. Partially obscured. — Photo: Gerald Hannon, The ArQuives, Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives

From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Government of Canada systematically investigated, harassed and fired 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the federal public service. Now called “the LGBT Purge,” this official policy destroyed thousands of careers, did untold psychological damage and ruined lives.

The Purge was one of the longest‐running, largest‐scale violations of human rights in the workplace in Canadian history. Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge brings to light stories from this dark period, which is well documented yet not well known.

The exhibition is about much more than government policy and past injustice. It is about courage and perseverance, about loss and triumph. Most importantly, it is about individuals — those who suffered discrimination and who stood up against powerful and pervasive biases.

Survivors took the government to court in the 1980s and 1990s. Their actions finally dismantled the Purge. The activists who fought for justice in their own lives also paved the way for other members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community and for future generations.

A woman with light hair and dark glasses smiles at the viewer. She is wearing a dark suit jacket and t-shirt that features a map of Canada in the colours of the inclusive Pride flag. — Michelle Douglas excelled in her military career before her expulsion from the military for being “not advantageously employable due to homosexuality.” Although devastating both personally and professionally, the experience propelled Douglas into 2SLGBTQI+ activism and leadership that has spanned decades.
Photo: CMHR, Ian McCausland

A man stands facing the viewer with a serious expression. He is wearing a dark suit jacket and a light blue buttoned-up shirt. He sports a multicoloured Métis-style flower on his lapel. — Todd Ross thought his life was over at age 21 after he was threatened, interrogated and discharged from the Navy. Instead, he became a lifelong activist in the fight for 2SLGBTQI+ rights.
Photo: CMHR, Ian McCausland

While honouring these courageous activists, this exhibition also seeks to generate new conversations, engaging with youth and connecting the past to present issues.

Inspired artworks

Love in a Dangerous Time includes two artworks created specially for the exhibition.

Two men dressed in dark suits and hats stand on either side of a similarly dressed man seated in a chair. They are pushing him and the chair backwards, grabbing him by his jacket and hollering at him in anger. The seated man's face expresses distress and fear. — During the Cold War, the Purge was underpinned by claims that queer people suffered from a “character weakness” and were susceptible to blackmail by foreign agents. For the exhibition, filmmaker **Noam Gonick created** *The Regulation of Desire*, which uses interpretive dance to tell stories from the Purge. This scene shows the interrogation of John Watkins, which led to his fatal heart attack, performed by Joel Simkin (seated), Stephan Azulay (left) and Joshua Hidson (right).
Photo: Réjean Brandt

Three images inside rounded rectangles appear in a horizontal row. The rectangles are meant to evoke the shape of older television screens. The images inside the rectangles are from 1950s and 1960s television shows and intended to convey a sense of the period. — A film installation by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, *The Fruit Machine: A Space Opera*, recreates the cultural context of the 1950s and 1960s, when television, advertising and other pop culture forms presented heterosexuality and gender binary as keys to a normal, good life.
Photo: Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan’s video installation. Photo provided by the artists

The LGBT Purge Fund

A group of six people face the camera smiling. They are standing in a small space barely large enough to accommodate them. The space is an exhibit made up of words and images. — Members of the LGBT Purge Fund Board attend the May 2024 opening of the *Dismantling Canada’s LGBT Purge* exhibit in the Museum’s Canadian Journeys gallery. Pictured from left to right: Wayne Davis, Diane Pitre, Douglas Elliott, Martine Roy, Michelle Douglas and Todd Ross.
Photo: CMHR, Ian McCausland

Love in a Dangerous Time was made possible through a class action lawsuit, launched by Purge survivors in 2016, which led to a historic $145 million settlement in 2018.

Most funds were used to pay damages to LGBT Purge victims. However, up to $25 million was set aside to fund projects that would symbolically represent compensation for those victims who did not live long enough to receive individual compensation. The LGBT Purge Fund, a not‐for‐profit corporation established to manage those funds, was responsible for implementing a number of legacy projects. This exhibition — along with a related travelling exhibition and an exhibit in the Museum’s Canadian Journeys gallery — is one of the projects.

For generations, 2SLGBTQI+ individuals in Canada have faced discrimination because of who they love and how they express themselves. Love in a Dangerous Time tells the story of the LGBT Purge, when official government policy prevented queer Canadians from serving their country. This is also a story about courage and perseverance. By documenting the damage caused by the Purge and the powerful movement that changed attitudes and laws, this exhibition conveys how everyone has the power to resist human rights violations.

Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada's LGBT Purge is on display in the Level 1 Gallery from January 31, 2025 to early 2026.

Ask yourself:

What does it mean to be “normal”? And how do ideas about normality change over time?
Who is harmed or excluded by national security policies? National security for whom?
What are the important issues facing 2SLGBTQI+ communities today?

Credits

In addition to the LGBT Purge Fund, we would like to thank Purge survivors and their friends, families and allies for contributing to this exhibition.