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Gay Pride Flag Saskatchewan Resources for Sexual Diversity
Saskatchewan Resources for Sexual Diversity

Celebrating a History of Diversity:

Lesbian and Gay Life in Saskatchewan, 1971 - 2006
A Selected Annotated Chronology

The 1970s


1972

January Saskatoon
The Zodiac Friendship Society (ZFS) was formed and officially incorporated in March as a non-profit organization. The Society soon began to operate the Gemini Club, which hosted dances and drop-ins at the Unitarian Centre at 502 Main Street.
[Ed Jackson, “Saskatoon Gay Action: Progress in a prairie city,” The Body Politic, no. 10 (1973) p. 23.]
January 22 Regina
Ten people at a private party volunteered to investigate forming a social centre for lesbians and gays in Regina. Don Murdoch and others visited gay organizers in Saskatoon to share their ideas and experiences.
[Darrel David Hockley, “A History of the Gay Community of Regina,” unpublished typescript, (1994) p. 8.]
February 11 Saskatoon
The Gemini Club hosted its first gay dance at the Unitarian Centre. At the time the club had fifteen paid members.
[Doug Hellquist, “President’s Report,” Gemini News, no. 1 (February 1972) p. 1-2.]
February 13 Regina
The first meeting of Regina’s LG community was convened at the home of Don Murdoch. The Atropos Friendship Society was adopted as the group’s official name and the Odyssey Club was selected as the name for the envisioned social club. An executive board was elected with Murdoch serving as president. Work began on a constitution and advertisements were placed in the Regina Leader-Post (RLP) seeking gays and lesbians who might wish to meet others. Over the next decades the organization evolved into the Gay and Lesbian Community of Regina (GLCR) which at the date of this compilation appears to be Canada’s oldest continuously running LG organization.
[Hockley]
August Ottawa
The National Gay Election Coalition was formed by sixteen Canadian groups to intervene in the approaching federal election (October 30).
September 9 Regina
The Odyssey Club opened at a rented house at 2242 Smith Street. The Club was initially open only on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The club offered music for dancing, an information line, a library, and bi-monthly newsletter, The Odyssey News (publication ceased in 1977). During its initial years the club operated as a venue for ‘private parties’. Liquor was brought in by patrons and deposited at a bar for service on request. To bolster the argument that these were in fact private house parties the upstairs rooms were rented to a live-in tenant. Don Murdoch served as president until 1975. He was succeeded by Bev Siller, the group’s first female president.
[Hockley / Evelyn Rogers, “Reflections on the Good Old Days,” Sensible Shoes News (SSN), (March and June 1997)]
October 24 Saskatoon
At a Liberal campaign rally at the U of S gymnasium Bruce Garman of SGA asked Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for his position on the place of homosexuals in the Bill of Rights and on restrictions against homosexuals in the Immigration Act. Trudeau replied noncommittally. The SGA received a more hostile response at another meeting when Justice Minister Otto Lang replied that he was certain that the majority of Canadians felt there were already enough homosexuals, drug addicts and prostitutes in the country.
[Zodiac Friendship Society News, v.1 no. 11 (November 1972) / “He came, we saw, he left,” The Sheaf, (October 27 1972) p. 1]
November 11-12 Saskatoon
The first Western Canada Gay Clubs Conference was hosted by the Gemini Club. Forty representatives from five private clubs -Club 70 (Edmonton), Club Carousel (Calgary), Happenings Social Club (Winnipeg), Odyssey Club (Regina) and Gemini Club (Saskatoon)- met to share information and seek means of cooperating.
[“Western Canadian Clubs Conference,” ZFS News, v. 1 (December 1972) p. 1-2.]