Awareness
On May 30th this year, we commemorate the forty-fourth anniversary of the Pisces Bathhouse Raid, a planned operation by Edmonton’s legal system to arrest Gay men in what was previously a safe space to gather and connect. The legacy of the raids has had an enduring and long-lasting effect on Edmonton’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and we take this day to remember the events and recognize not only how far we’ve come since, but also how far we still have to go.
Bathhouses have been gathering spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ Men and masculine-presenting individuals for centuries, with the modern iteration coming into being around the end of the 19th century. They were used as safe places to meet for companionship of varying forms and were often popular cruising destinations for those who frequented them. They vary in clientele, expectations of anonymity, services offered, and discretion, but were by and large consistent pillars of the communities they were located within. Bathhouses could be found in hundreds—if not thousands—of major cities across the globe, and Edmonton, Alberta was no different.
The Pisces Health Spa, opened in 1978, was by no means the first bathhouse established in the city, but it rapidly became known as the best. This was in no small part due to the meticulous cleanliness standards kept by manager John Kerr, a choreographer who worked with the drag queens of the Flashback Follies. This commitment to hygiene was a large part of the exponential growth of the bathhouse’s clientele—at its peak, it counted over two thousand paying members and was by all accounts a beloved institution of the Edmonton 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Bathhouses were a refuge in a hostile world, but by no means did that mean the world was ignorant of their existence, and it is unsurprising that in the social climate of the day, raids on bathhouses by law enforcement were recorded as early as the 1900s. Those unfortunate enough to be caught in these operations could and did face violence, public outings, and legal repercussions, and the spectre of possibility loomed large over everyone who entered what should have been a safe space.
Canadian law enforcement had been conducting raids on bathhouses since 1964, but it was in February of 1981 that “Operation Soap”—the raid of four bathhouses on the same night—would lead to the mass arrest of three hundred and six people under laws regarding ‘bawdy houses.’ This disregarded the fact that not only had Canada decriminalized homosexuality in 1969, but also that other patrons of so-called ‘bawdy houses,’ such as straight men hiring women as prostitutes, faced far less scrutiny or repercussions under the same laws.
Operation Soap, though, was just the beginning. Beginning in February, nine Edmonton detectives began acting in key roles as part of a massive surveillance endeavour. With other personnel hidden in a neighbouring building to track the comings and goings of the patrons, the nine detectives went into the bathhouse itself, posing as clientele, and using that cover to, among other things, take photos of patrons engaged in intimate activities. It is currently understood that all of this was sparked by a complaint from Fred Griffiths, a gay man who had never been inside the Pisces Health Spa but was nonetheless ‘disgusted’ about what happened inside its walls. These attitudes about—among other things—anonymous sex and establishments based around sex were not altogether uncommon among other members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and are still very much present today.
On May 30th, 1981, the Edmonton police stormed into the Pisces Health Spa, barging into private rooms and informing everyone they found that they were arrested for being ‘found-ins’ at a bawdy house. The men were not allowed to put on clothes until they had been photographed in whatever state the police had arrested them in, then photographed again once clothed, holding up signs stating their names and other information. This all happened as two crown prosecutors looked on—an extreme rarity at any such raid. Fifty-six ‘found-ins’ were eventually herded in vans and police cruisers down to the courthouse and were denied any legal counsel. At the same time, the owners of the Pisces Health Spa—Dr. Henri Toupin and Eric Stein—and John Kerr were all arrested as well.
The media went into a frenzy almost immediately. The names of those arrested were shown on CFRN’s (now CTV) six o’clock news, effectively outing them in an incredibly hostile time. The two thousand-strong clientele list which had been seized in the raid, meanwhile, featured prominently and ominously in the coverage. It was other members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, notably the Gay Alliance Towards Equality, who stepped up to offer support, advice, and information to those caught up in the raid. Toupin, Stein, and Kerr all pleaded guilty to their charges, and unfortunately, once the first ‘found-in’ was deemed guilty in court, more soon followed. In the end, most of those arrested pleaded guilty in turn.
Yet, Edmonton’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community did not take this lying down. Sick of trying to hide who they were in hopes the legal system and the court of public opinion would overlook them, they began to plot more public acts of protest, such as a demonstration at city hall and the entering of the S.S. Pisces 2, crowned with a sail in the shape of a pink triangle, to the annual Klondike Days Sourdough Raft Race. The frustration galvanized a community which many felt had grown complacent to mistreatment from law enforcement and the public at large, and it would echo throughout the years—notably, Edmonton’s first Pride events, in the theme “Gay Pride Through Unity,” were held the following year in 1982. Twelve years after the raids, Mayor Jan Reimer officially instituted Gay and Lesbian Pride Day, and the Edmonton Police Service released a formal statement of apology in 2021, on the fortieth anniversary of the raids. While a true outrage, the Pisces Bathhouse Raids are always remembered as a turning point in the fight for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights not only in Edmonton, but all of Canada.
For a more in-depth look at the Pisces Health Spa and the raids of that fateful day, you might be interested in an article by the Edmonton City as Museum Project, posted a little before the 40th anniversary of the raids. A link can be found here.
The Pisces Bathhouse Raids were a critical turning point in the story of the Canadian fight for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, and it’s a true shame they are not more widely known. It is stories like these—and the need to share them with Canada—that is the CPHS’s most cherished goal. On this day, we must remember to be grateful to those who fought and sacrificed for the freedoms and joy we now experience and also remember that the fight is not yet over.
