It was an amazing time of exuberance, optimism, astonishing innovation, and sometimes breath-taking courage-characterized by impatience and a willingness to confront all oppressors. “Out of the Closets and into the Streets,” “Gay Is Just as Good as Straight,” and “Better Blatant Than Latent” were among the rallying cries. Visibility and organizing became the objectives through which liberation would be attained. In the short period between 19, the new ideology blossomed on several fronts breaking through isolation and loneliness rejecting the notions of sin, sickness, and criminality that previously defined homosexuality fighting against oppression, discrimination, and harassment asserting pride in same-sex sexuality as good and natural engaging in aggressive public advocacy for social and legislative reform and building both a community and a culture based on a commonly shared sexuality. As Tom Warner notes in his book Never Going Back: A History of Queer Activism in Canada, The organizing of the picnic grew from the gay liberation movement that was rapidly developing in Canada during the early 1970s.
Around 300 people followed the poster’s directions to what was billed as “Toronto’s first gay picnic”-the first of a series of events held throughout the 1970s that served as precursors to the current annual Pride celebration, established in 1981.
It was a simple poster, one that asked people to bring food, drink, and music to Hanlan’s Point on August 1, 1971.