“More Than Two Is a Crowd”: Mononormativity and Gross Indecency in the Criminal Code, 1981-82

Abstract

In 1969, the Trudeau Liberals partially decriminalized homosexuality by allowing homosexual acts to take place provided that only two people were present. The idea that only two people could be present stems from the concept of mononormativity, or in other words, the idea that sexual relations are acceptable when only two people take part, preferably within the confines of a monogamous relationship. This essay examines the role of mononormativity in shaping the debate over Bill C-53, a proposed reform to the Criminal Code in 1982, which would have removed the “only two person” requirement of the code’s exception clause that regulated homosexual sex. Fully galvanized in the wake of the 1981 Toronto bathhouse raids, members of the Right to Privacy Committee carried the message of “We Demand” gay activists from 1971: that these provisions of the Criminal Code needed to be repealed. C-53 failed to pass because while Canadian society was willing to accept a limited decriminalization of homosexuality, it was not willing to accept any further breaches to heteronormative, monogamous sexual behaviour.

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