File MS-15-9.2020-015, Box 33, Folder 3 - Gay and Lesbian Association meeting materials, 1987-1989

The Gay and Lesbian Association of Nova Scotia (GALA) was the outgrowth or renaming of the Gay Alliance for Equality (GAE), which was a Halifax-based organization founded in the summer of 1972. GAE was incorporated in 1973 and changed its name to the Gay and Lesbian Association (GALA) in 1988. The organization created a help line (the Gayline), which offered information, referral and peer counselling; a Speaker's Bureau to educate the public about gay issues; and a civil rights committee to organize educational and political activity. In January 1976 GAE established a social club and bar on Barrington Street called the Turret. The only gay bar in Halifax for many years, the Turret became the social, political and cultural centre for Halifax's gay and lesbian communities and hosted a national conference of gay organizations in 1978. In the summer of 1982 the Turret was closed and re-opened as Rumours Bar on Granville Street (moving to Gottingen Street in 1987). The bulk of the organization's revenues came from the bar; at its peak, it had revenues of half a million dollars a year. In addition to operating Rumours and the Gayline, GAE/GALA also organized activities for Pride Week, protested anti-gay political, legal and media discrimination, networked with other gay groups across Canada, and acquired funding for projects such as a community health promotion. It also published its own newsletter (the Gaezette) and supported the successful campaign of Lesbian and Gay Rights Nova Scotia (LGRNS) to include sexual orientation in the Human Rights Act in 1991. GALA disbanded in 1995 due to financial difficulties.