RESOURCES
Ready to dive deeply? Browse our selected list of primary and secondary sources about the Pussy Palace, the raid, and our oral history project.
PRIMARY SOURCES
A selection of materials written by or featuring Palace organizers, patrons, or community allies.
Books, Chapters, and Articles
Bell, Shannon. (2010). Fast feminism. Autonomedia.
Gallant, Chanelle, & Gillis, Loralee. (2013). Pussies bite back: The story of the women’s bathhouse raid. Torquere, 3, 152-67.
Gallant, Chanelle (2020, September 14). 20 years ago, queer women in Toronto fought the police. And won. Xtra.
Irwin, Nancy. (2000). Police raid women’s bathhouse party. Siren, 5(4), 12-14.
MacCool, Fiona. (2017). The first rule of Pussy Palace. In Stephanie Chambers, Jane Farrow, Maureen FitzGerald, Ed Jackson, John Lorinc, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Tatum Taylor, & Rahim Thawer (Eds.), Any other way: How Toronto got queer (pp. 290-92). Coach House Books.
Miklos, Lyla. (2019). Six-minute memoir: Queer love stories.
Salah, Trish. (2007). Transfixed in lesbian paradise. Atlantis, 30(2), 24-9.
Singh, Deb. (2022, April 29). How to find self-love + community while getting a lap dance: BIPOC adventures in queer and trans bathhouse organizing. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
Valverde, Mariana. (2002, February 6). A Pussy-positive judgement. Xtra.
Vogels, Josey. (2000, September 21). Polite gal love. Now Toronto.
Whittall, Zoe. (1999, July 14). What’s a wiggle worth?. Xtra.
Archival Sources
Carlyle Jansen Collection. Sexual Representation Collection, Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto.
Her Majesty the Queen v. Hornick. (October 22, 2001). Court Proceedings, Ontario Court of Justice. Part of Chanelle Gallant’s materials in the Pussy Palace Oral History Project fonds, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ+ Archives. Toronto, Canada.
Her Majesty the Queen v. Hornick. (October 23, 2001). Court Proceedings, Ontario Court of Justice. Part of Chanelle Gallant’s materials in the Pussy Palace Oral History Project fonds, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ+ Archives. Toronto, Canada.
Her Majesty the Queen v. Hornick. (January 31, 2002). Judgment, Ontario Court of Justice. Part of Chanelle Gallant’s materials in the Pussy Palace Oral History Project fonds, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ+ Archives. Toronto, Canada.
Policing and the queer community: Community consultation. (2005). [Facilitator Notes].
Pussy Palace Oral History Project fonds, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ+ Archives. Toronto, Canada.
Willats, Anna. (2005). Recommendations from the community consultation on policing and LGBTT communities.
Moving Images
Egale Canada. (2018, April 10). #HearOurStory – Pussy Palace Raid. [Video]. Youtube.
Queerstory. (n.d). The Power of the Pussy. [Video].
Queerstory. (n.d.). The Pussy Palace. [Video].
unpopulararts. (2018, April 29). Pussy Palace Panty Picket Protest! [Video]. Youtube.
SECONDARY SOURCES
A selection of scholarly articles centering the Pussy Palace bathhouse events.
Bain, Alison, & Nash, Catherine. (2007). The Toronto women’s bathhouse raid: Querying queer identities in the courtroom. Antipode, 39(1), 17-34.
Blair, Jennifer. (2004). “What we do well”: Writing the Pussy Palace into a queer collective memory. Torquere, 6, 143-67.
Brown, AD, & Gailey, Nerissa. (2013). Organizing lesbian/queer bathhouse events: Emerging forms of sexual experience. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 20(2), 251-65.
Hammers, Corie. (2008). Bodies that speak and the promises of queer: Looking to two lesbian/queer bathhouses for a third way. Journal of Gender Studies, 17(2), 147–64.
Hammers, Corie. (2008). Making space for an agentic sexuality? The examination of a lesbian/queer bathhouse. Sexualities, 11(5), 547-72.
Hammers, Corie. (2009). Space, agency, and the transfiguring of lesbian/queer desire. Journal of Homosexuality, 56(6), 757–85.
Lamble, Sarah. (2009). Unknowable bodies, unthinkable sexualities: Lesbian and transgender legal invisibility in the Toronto women’s bathhouse raid. Social & Legal Studies, 18(1), 111-30.
Nash, Catherine, & Bain, Alison. (2007). “‘Reclaiming raunch’? spatializing queer identities at Toronto women’s bathhouse events. Social & Cultural Geography, 8(1), 47-62.
ABOUT THE RAID
A selection of news articles featuring media coverage of the Pussy Palace Police Raid.
Anderson, Scott. (2000, September 28). Crybabies. Now Toronto.
Bolger, Mehgan. (2005, May 25). You’ve come a long way, Pussy. Xtra.
Brown, Eleanor. (2000, September 20). Male cops at Pussy Palace. Xtra.
Brown, Eleanor. (2000, October 4). A bureaucratic halt at police board. Xtra.
Brown, Eleanor. (2000, October 18). Charges laid. Xtra.
Brown, Eleanor. (2000, November 15). Cops sue Kyle Rae. Xtra.
CBC News. (2002, February 1). Lesbian bathhouse raid charges tossed by judge. CBC.
Cohen, Ben. (2022, September 15). Who is Myron Demkiw, Toronto’s new chief of police?. Toronto Star.
Darra, Irene. (2000, October 4). The cop speaks. Xtra.
Gallant, Chanelle (2020, September 14). 20 years ago, queer women in Toronto fought the police. And won. Xtra.
Gallant, Paul. (2002, February 6). Pussy Palace triumph. Xtra.
Giese, Rachel. (2000, November 29). Pussy pals. Xtra.
Luksic, Nicola. (2005, September 28). Improving cop/queer relations. Xtra.
Pazzano, Sam. (2002, June 5). Gay cop rips city councillor. Sun Media.
Shahzad, Ramna. (2016, June 22). Women strip-searched, charged in bathhouse raids reject public apology. CBC.
Sharpe, Emily. (2002, June 26). Don’t cross the cops. Xtra.
Valverde, Mariana. (2002, February 6). A Pussy-Positive Judgement. Xtra.
ABOUT THE PPOHP
A selection of blogs, reflective essays, and media coverage about the Pussy Palace Oral History Project.
Brown, Elspeth, & Stranges, Alisha. (2023). The Pussy Palace Oral History Project: Sensory portraits of public sex. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 15.
Colavito, Elio. (2022, September 2). Bringing publics to the Palace: User experience design and digital exhibition prototyping with Peter Luo. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
Colavito, Elio. (2022, August 5). Can I say this?. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
Colavito, Elio. (2022, April 1). A piece of a trans guy. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
Colavito, Elio. (2022, March 4). Hindsight is 2020. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
Colavito, Elio, & Stranges, Alisha. (2022, May 13). When memory gets wiggy. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
Drmay, Sid. (2022, October 3). The Pussy Palace was more than the raid. Xtra.
Sismondo, Christine. (2022, September 8). A look inside Toronto’s Pussy Palace before the police stormed in. Toronto Star.
Stranges, Alisha. (2022, May 27). Tangible traces: Searching for the Pussy Palace polaroids. LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory.
