February 23 Guelph, Ont. Between […]

Graph

When

1971-02-23

Description

February 23 Guelph, Ont. Between forty and fifty men and women attended the inaugural meeting of the University of Guelph Homophile Association (UGHA). Guest speakers at the meeting were Charles Hill of UTHA and Rev. Ritchie McMurray, an Anglican chaplain. The UGHA believed that "morally, socially, physically, psychologically, emotionally, and in every other way the homosexual is not inferior to the heterosexual, and homosexuality is in no way inferior to heterosexuality as a valid way of life." Paul Maurice, editor of the student newspaper the Ontarion, became the group's first chairperson, UGHA had problems organizing in its early days and collapsed in late 1971, but was revived in September 1973 with Heather Ramsay and Rick Stenhouse as prominent members. The revived UGHA sponsored a speaker's bureau, dances, and a newsletter. The group received much publicity in the Ontarion; the paper ran a regular "Gays at Guelph" column starting in autumn 1973. Late in 1975 UGHA was renamed Guelph Gay Equality.