May 15 Montréal After more than a […]
When
1976-05-15
Description
May 15 Montréal After more than a month of undercover work by nine drug and morality squad officers, police raided the Neptune Sauna (456 rue de la Gauchetière) and arrested eighty-seven men. Four men were charged as being keepers of a bawdy house; the others were charged as found-ins. The police also seized the Neptune's membership list, which contained more than 7,000 names. They billed the raid as "the break-up of the most important male homosexual prostitution ring in North America." This was seen as part of a campaign of police harassment of gay establishments to "clean up" Montréal for the 1976 Summer Olympics. (See also May 20, 1976, and August 23, 1976.)
All Events
August 23 Montréal Sixty-eight men […]May 20 Montréal Police raided the […]All Places
The Neptune SaunaMontrealAll Organizations
Service de police de la Ville de Montreal/Montreal Police ServiceAll Citations
"Saunas: cause remise," Gay Montréal, 1, no. 13 (21 September 1976): 3."Record Haul of Male Prostitutes Made in Deluxe Local Sauna," Sunday Express (Montréal), 16 May 1976"The Police and the Press," Body Politic, no. 25 (1976), p. 17Claude Poirier, "Descente dans une présumée maison de débauche pour homos: 87 personnes arrêtées," Dimanche-Matin (Montréal), four star ed., 16 May 1976, p. 19"Olympic Crackdown," Body Politic, no. 25 (1976), pp. 1, 17"Male-prostitution Charges Laid," Ottawa Citizen, 17 May 1976, p. 17Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile, The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010), p. 312"Important réseau de prostitution mâle démantelé à Montréal," La Presse (Montréal), 17 May 1976, p. B15"Homosexual Hookers Held," Toronto Star, four star ed., 17 May 1976, p. A7"Les 'gais' denoncent le harcèlement policier," Journal de Montréal, 27 May 1976, p. 11Bertrand Desjardins, "Raid de police chez les prostitués mâles: 85 hommes se font prendre... les culottes baissées," Journal de Montréal, 16 May 1976, p. 6"Attack on Montreal Gay Community," Labor Challenge, 24 May 1976, p. 2"87 Arrested in Raid on Montreal Sauna," Globe and Mail, metro ed., 17 May 1976, p. 9
