Organized by the Toronto Women’s Bathhouse Committee, the Pussy Palace was a series of radical public sex events for queer women and trans people in Toronto, Canada (c. 1998-2014). On September 15, 2000, five male police officers from Toronto’s 52 division interrupted over 350 patrons in what became the last major police raid of a queer bathhouse in Canadian history.

From February to August of 2021, the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory at the University of Toronto Mississauga (Director, Elspeth Brown) collected 36 interviews with bathhouse patrons, event organizers, and community activists. Our interviews address not only the raid, but also queer joy and radical sex/gender cultures in turn-of-the-21st-century Toronto.

We have since transferred the digitized collection to our collaborative partner, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives for long-term preservation and community access. However, a desire to connect broader publics with this history inspired us to experiment with a variety of project outcomes, both creative and scholarly. Whether you are a fellow scholar, artist, or community member, we invite you to browse this digital project showcase and engage with this radical moment of Toronto’s sexual culture for yourself.