The Pussy Palace Raid was a police raid of Club Baths in Toronto on September 14, 2000. Club Baths (a men’s bathhouse that later became Club Toronto) sponsored a women’s event, and the police were there to investigate whether illegal alcohol consumption was going on in the establishment. Members of the Lesbian community felt that the presence of five male officers in Club Baths while women were in towels marked a revival of intrusive activities against the LGBTQ community. The Pussy Palace Raid (so called because the women’s event that night was named “The Pussy Palace”) brought forth public protests, much of it involving humorous performance.
Protesters at the Pussy Palace Panty Picket Protest (archives.xtra.ca/Story.aspx?s=1418680, September 2012) Top image: dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog: JAlbor/Dishonored_Preview_Impressions, September 2012
The Palace
“Pussy Palace” is the name of a women’s bathhouse event founded by Janet Rowe in 1998 and sponsored by the Toronto Women’s Bathhouse Committee (TWBC). It has been held in venues that were men-only spaces, but open for that one night to women and transpeople only.
There was no women’s bathhouse in Toronto, but there were several for men that were open 24 hours a day. The typical bathhouse is a secure space, with restricted entry as to guarantee the privacy of those inside. The interior has lockers, cubicles for rent (each with a mattress), showers, a Jacuzzi, sauna, video screens with pornography, and dark spaces for semi-private sensual encounters. Music, usually dance music, is piped throughout the establishment. Patrons are handed towels, lubricating substances, and condoms. Posters on the walls advertise upcoming events, warn patrons against problems caused by substance abuse, and promote safe-sex messages. Some bathhouses have pools and bars, and may bring in DJs on nights with heavy traffic.
Club Toronto, which closed in April 2010 (xtra.ca/public/National/Club_Toronto_closes-8456.aspx, August 2012)
The Raid
At 6 PM on September 14, 2000, the TWBC began its fourth Pussy Palace event at the Club Baths. The theme that night was “2000 Pussies,” and approximately 300 women showed up for it. The night was much like any other night, with towels, lube, and safe-sex accessories handed out to everyone. But 2000 Pussies was unique in the diversity of activities available, such as souvenir photographs, sado-masochistic activities, lap dancing, and massage.
Six hours and forty-five minutes later, five male plainclothes police officers from the 52 Division police station covering most of the Village (LGBTQ neighborhood in Toronto) came into the establishment and demanded unrestricted access to the Pussy Palace. Two undercover female officers had reported liquor violations and the performance of sex acts (more specifically, masturbation) outside of the private cubicles. The men investigated the venue for over an hour, looking into cubicles and demanding the names of those in charge. Witnesses at the event reported that nobody stepped forward claiming to be in charge because it was a community event. If the police wanted to arrest anyone, they would have to arrest them all. The officers had to settle for Rachel Aitcheson and J.P. Hornick, the two women who had signed the agreement to hold the event at Club Baths. Neither was arrested that night, but both would be charged with liquor license violations and disorderly conduct.
The raid and charges brought against Pussy Palace organizers were condemned by the LGBTQ community. Activists drew parallels between the Pussy Palace Raid and police oppression in the past, particularly the Toronto Bathhouse Raids, a police sweep in 1981 of several men’s bathhouses resulting in hundreds of arrests, public humiliation and belittlement of patrons, and destruction of property by police officers. The police sweep triggered the largest protest in favor of the Gay community in Canadian history. The Bathhouse Raids are often called “Canada’s Stonewall,” although some in the Canadian LGBTQ community object to calling it “Stonewall” because they see that as undue Americanization of Canadian LGBTQ history. It should be noted that the term “Canada’s Stonewall” is itself a Canadian moniker – few Americans know about the Toronto Bathhouse Raids to call them anything.
The Protest
Toronto Police 52 Division (wikito.org/Toronto_Police_52_Division, August 2012)
The idea that a routine liquor license check should require five male police officers walking into a clothing-optional venue for women (and spend over an hour doing so) inspired a few hundred people to take action. On October 28, the Pussy Palace Panty Picket Protest was held in front of police headquarters, 52 Division. Protesters waved panties and boxer briefs as well as posters with slogans, including “No more raids,” “Peeping @ panties?” “Sluts can’t be shamed,” and “Fuck you, 52” (a slogan used in protests that followed the 1981 bathhouse raids).
In a protest that was as much about humor as it was condemning oppression, the crowd chanted “Keep your hands/Off our panties” and “What do we want? Pussy! When do we want it? Now!” Besides the undergarments placed on posters and waved around in the air, there was also a clothesline with panties, a giant vulva, and dancing. Women activists took the microphone and gave speeches, including Aitcheson, who waved striped boxer shorts, and Hornick, who brought polka dotted boxers.
The Verdict
When the case went to trial, witnesses report that Judge Peter Hryn of the Ontario Court had trouble saying “Pussy Palace.” On January 31, 2002, he declared that the five male officers violated the constitutional rights of the women attending the Pussy Palace event. It was his opinion that women were entitled to a safe place to explore their sexuality without the imposition of men. He went on to compare the raid to a strip search, and that it was “one of the clearest cases” of inappropriate law enforcement. All charges were dropped.
– Mickey Weems
QEGF Authors and Articles
QEGF Introduction
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Further reading:
Choise, Simona. Good Girls Do: Sex Chronicles of a Shameless Generation. Toronto: ECW, 2001.
Warner, Tom. Never Going Back: A History of Queer Activism in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2002.