Greg Pavelich, a long-time left queer liberation activist and a very dear friend died in Toronto on October 6th, 2003 at the age of 52. Although it was cut short, he lived a wonderful life filled with compassion, caring and activism. He was profoundly committed to queer liberation, the union movement, to queer organizing in the union movement and to a socialist transformation of society. Celebrating his life is remembering an important part of our queer and left histories and shows us what a life of activism can accomplish.

Greg The Aids Activist

Greg was committed to AIDS activism, to the AIDS activist slogan that “Silence = Death” and to direct action to save people’s lives. We worked together in AIDS Action Now! in the late 1980s fighting for access to life-saving treatments from the state and drug companies. In 1988, when Jake Epp was the federal Minister of Health, we unfurled an “Epp = Death” banner at the beginning of an official AIDS conference, and during the same conference Greg was holding the effigy of Epp when it was burned at a demonstration a few days later. A few weeks later, Prime Minister Mulroney called Epp into his office and asked him to explain why people were so angry that they were burning his effigy in the streets of Toronto. Our sit-ins, die-ins and disruptions made a real difference in opening up far wider access to treatments and in creating conditions for people to live longer and better quality lives.

Greg The Queer Liberationist

I first met Greg during the mass resistance to the raids on the Toronto gay men’s baths in the early 1980s. Greg was integrally involved with the formation of Queer Nation in 1990 which for a few years mobilized in the streets to bash back against the queer-bashers and promoted queer visibility and militancy. Greg got into some trouble for supporting demonstrations and public actions in the struggle for family and spousal recognition rights in 1994 and not relying on the official lobbying and back room negotiations to come through for us (which they didn’t!). Greg also spoke out against the corporatization of Pride Day celebrations and joined with others to argue for a return to a more militant political focus.

From 1994, Greg was deeply involved in the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO), which continues to be informed by liberationist politics. Rather than adopting the position that winning same-sex marriage was the final endpoint of our struggle, Greg and other members of CLGRO developed a position that supported equality for same-sex relationships but also raised a critique of state-institutionalized marriage as the solution.

Unlike many in mainstream gay and lesbian organizations, Greg did not crave acceptance and assimilation into white middle-class heterosexual society. Unlike those who define “gay” and “queer” in narrow terms Greg always made the connections between queer oppression, sexism, racism, class exploitation, and the need for a new queer-positive socialism. Greg stood in opposition to the new middle-class white elite which have risen to the top of queer community formation.

Greg And The Sex Police

Greg’s focus against the sex police continued with his involvement in community resistance to the police raid on the Bijou in 1999. In his article “The Bijou Raid: The Battle For Queer Space”(New Socialist, Nov./Dec. 1999 ) he wrote:

“Some in the queer community say this is a small incident affecting only a small group of “marginal” men who use gay porn theatres like the Bijou. They argued that a challenge to this raid would hurt the broader push for equality and acceptance. These people adopt an assimilationist perspective that believes that rights for queers will come through presenting ourselves as being “respectable” and “responsible”; just like straight people except for the gender of our sex partners. But a band of committed queer movement and progressive activists saw something much more sinister in these raids ... The battle to defend queer space that was begun in the widespread resistance to the bath raids in the 1980s needs to be continued. We face a continuing encroachment into the social and sexual spaces that queer people have established for ourselves.”

Greg viewed oppressive sexual regulation as central to queer oppression and did not try to hide or sanitize the erotic dimensions of our liberation. Most recently Greg was involved with CLGRO’s initiative to renew the challenge to the laws allowing for sexual policing given the recent use of the bawdy-house legislation against gay men’s establishments in Montreal and Calgary. In opposition to the police Greg supported building alliances with other groups facing police attack and discrimination. He was a firm ally of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

Greg And Young Queer People

Greg was an active and consistent opponent of the heterosexism, violence and hatred that far too many young queer people still face in this society. During his decade as a teacher he had the opportunity to focus more on the needs of young people, especially queer youth, as he and they struggled against the pervasive, institutionalized heterosexism in the school system. Greg became CLGRO’s point person on queer issues in the school system, believing that until young queer people are free of harassment and oppression, none of us are really free.