Chris Bearchell

Bearchell was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1953. She was the eldest daughter of Julia Battersby and Ben Bearchell, and had one younger brother and two younger sisters.{{Cite news |last=Shanahan |first=Noreen |date=27 April 2007 |title=She was Canada's rabble-rouser for gay rights |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A167707718/CIC?u=utoronto_main&sid=bookmark-CIC&xid=765e3eb0 |access-date=16 March 2024 |work=The Globe and Mail}} Bearchell attended Jasper Place High School. As a teenager, she participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement and the Campaign to Defend Dr. Henry Morgentaler. She moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1975.

In 1995, Bearchell moved from Toronto to Lasqueti Island in British Colombia. Two years later, in 1997, Bearchell was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a ten-year illness, she died in hospital in Vancouver on February 18, 2007. She was 53 years old at the time of her death. Bearchell's death was marked by obituaries in Xtra!, Now Magazine, and The Globe and Mail, with other prominent Canadian LGBT activists sharing their recollections of her. A memorial service was held at The 519 in Toronto, and was attended by "a veritable who's who of queer activism" in the city.{{Cite web |last=Garro |first=Julia |date=28 March 2007 |title=Embracing Eris |url=https://xtramagazine.com/power/embracing-eris-19337 |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Xtra! Magazine}}

Bearchell was involved in organizing for multiple causes in Toronto between 1975 and 1995. Her causes included gay liberation, lesbian rights, sex workers' rights, privacy rights, opposition to censorship, AIDS advocacy, and abortion rights. Bearchell was also a member of the League for Socialist Action, a Trotskyist organization.{{Cite web |last=McLean |first=Duncan |title=Gay Liberation in Canada: A Socialist Perspective |url=https://www.socialisthistory.ca/Docs/1961-/Gay/Gay-Lib-6.htm |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Socialist History Project}}

{{Main|Gay Liberation}}

Chris Bearchell was a towering figure in the Gay Liberation movement in Canada.{{Cite web |last=Nicol |first=Nancy |title=Proud Lives: Chris Bearchell (August 16, 1953 - February 18, 2007) |url=https://www.yorku.ca/nnicol/proudlives.html |access-date=3 March 2025| website=York University}} She spoke about their goals, saying "Discrimination became a reality as gay people emerged from the closet in larger numbers. We wanted to organize people in opposition to that discrimination, in part to bring them out in even greater numbers, knowing that that was a necessary precondition for the creation of a gay community and a gay political movement."{{Cite web |last=Nicol |first=Nancy |title=Gay Liberation |url=https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/exhibits/show/nancy-nicol/nn-gayliberation|access-date=3 March 2025| website=The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions}}

In the year 1975, Chris Bearchell co-founded the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights of Ontario. She helped prepare "The Ontario Human Rights Omission" and the brief was presented to the Ontario MPPs which included detailed incidents in discrimination for housing and employment against gays and lesbians.{{Cite news |last=Shanahan |first=Noreen |date=29 April 2007 |title=CHRIS BEARCHELL, 53 ACTIVIST: She was Canada's rabble-rouser for gay rights |url=https://www.proquest.com/hnpglobeandmail/historical-newspapers/chris-bearchell-53-activist/docview/1400846368/sem-2 |url-status=live |access-date=7 April 2025 |work=The Globe and Mail |pages=S9}}

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| quote = They think that when they pick on us that they’re picking on the weakest. Well, they made a mistake this time. We’re going to show them just how strong we are. They can’t get away with this shit anymore. No more shit!

| author = Chris Bearchell

| source = at the Feb. 6 protest against Operation Soap.{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Annie |title=Chris Bearchell |issue=584 |publisher=Xtra! Toronto's Gay and Lesbian News |date=15 March 2007 |page=23}}

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Bearchell participated in the Feb. 6, 1981 protest against the mass arrests conducted by Toronto Police the previous night during Operation Soap. Bearchell gave a speech to the gathered protesters at the corner of Yonge and Wellesley in Toronto's Gay Village, and was reportedly the one to start the chant "No more shit!", which became a prominent slogan in the community response to Operation Soap.{{cite news |last1=Xtra staff |title=Activist Chris Bearchell dies at age 53 {{!}} Xtra Magazine |url=https://xtramagazine.com/power/activist-chris-bearchell-dies-at-age-53-19540 |access-date=14 March 2024 |agency=Xtra! Toronto's Gay and Lesbian News |issue=583 |date=1 March 2007 |language=en-CA}}{{cite book |title=Flaunting it! A decade of gay journalism from The Body Politic |date=1982 |publisher=Pink Triangle Pr |location=Toronto |isbn=978-0919888319 |page=274}}

Beginning in the 1980s, Bearchell began organizing in the sex workers' rights movement. In 1983, she was a founding member of the Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes (CORP).{{Cite journal |last=McKenna |first=Emma |date=29 June 2021 |title=The white-painters of Cabbagetown: Neighborhood policing and sex worker resistance in Toronto, 1986–1987 |journal=Sexualities |volume=25 |issue=7 |pages=867–891 |doi=10.1177/13634607211028500 |pmid=36249415 |pmc=9554158 }} This organization advocated for the decriminalization of prostitution, spoke out against the prosecution of those involved in sex work, and provided advice and support to sex workers facing criminal charges. After Bill C-49 was passed in December 1985, CORP organized to challenge the constitutionality of the law.{{Cite thesis |last=Beer |first=Sarah |title=The Sex Worker Rights Movement in Canada: Challenging the "Prostitution Laws" |date=2011 |access-date=16 Mar 2024 |degree=PhD (dissertation) |publisher=University of Windsor |url=https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1499&context=etd |page=26}} During the period of 1986 to 1991, Bearchell was one of the activists "at the helm of CORP's efforts for decriminalization".

In 1986, Bearchell helped found Maggie's, a drop-in and advocacy organization for sex workers. In 1990, Bearchell became the organization's coordinator after the previous coordinator, her close friend and collaborator Danny Cockerline, stepped down.Leatherfield, Paul. (1999). "[https://collections.arquives.ca/link/descriptions37997 Danny Cockerline fonds]" (finding aid). Prepared for The Arquives, Toronto. Retrieved 16 Mar 2024.

{{Main|The Body Politic}}

Bearchell began writing for The Body Politic in 1976. She had a column called "Dykes" and wrote about lesbian issues. In 1978, she helped lead a campaign to defend the paper against criminal indecency charges.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} In 1979, she joined the paper's collective, becoming the collective's only woman member.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

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• [https://collections.arquives.ca/link/descriptions22045 Christine Bearchell fonds] at The ArQuives

Category:Canadian lesbians

Category:Canadian LGBTQ rights activists

Category:Canadian women journalists

Category:Canadian LGBTQ journalists

Category:Canadian newspaper journalists

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Category:1953 births

Category:2007 deaths