Throughout his teaching career at the University of Toronto, Prof. Rayside has been an advocate on gay, lesbian and feminist issues. His university advocacy activities are numerous. Between 1985 and 1987, he served on the Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Women, University of Toronto. Prof. Rayside was also a Member of the Sexual Harassment Hearing Panel, University of Toronto, 1988-1992. In this capacity, he heard the first case under the new Sexual Harassment Policy, Torfason vs. Hummel. He was a founding member and coordinator of the Committee on Homophobia from 1989-1991 and remained a member until 1994. In addition, between 1989 and 1994, Prof. Rayside was a member of the Men’s Forum. He also served on the Teach-In Committee and was responsible for organising a university-wide teach-in on sexism and violence against women in 1990. Prof. Rayside also participated on the Ad hoc crisis team to handle the case of a U. of T. residence student with AIDS, 1991-1992, and helped prepare a discussion of report on university AIDS policy. He also assisted in the organisation of the “Queer Sites: Studies in Lesbian and Gay Culture” Conference in 1993.
Records in this series document Prof. Rayside’s advocacy activities and leadership on equity issues relating to gender and sexual orientation. Types of records include: correspondence, reports, briefs, notes, meeting minutes, programmes, and conference posters.
Committees documented in B1998-0029 are: Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Women; Ad hoc crisis team to handle the case of a U. of T. residence student with AIDS; Men’s Forum, Queer Sites Conference Organising Committee; Sexual Harassment Hearing Panel; and Teach-In Committee.
Groups or committees documented in B2008-0023 include: Committee on Homophobia, Men’s Forum, Positive Space Campaign, Lesbian and Gay Academic Society, Toronto Centre for Gay and Lesbian Studies, Working Group on Policy Issues (response to homelessness) and the Equity Committee for the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences. Other files generally document Rayside’s involvement on issues of pay equity, diversity, human rights as well a gay and lesbian rights. There are two files that document the Bent on Change conferences in 2000 and 2002 of which Rayside was a key organizer. Finally, filed separately because of restrictions are two files documenting Rayside’s legal challenges against councillor Betty Disero over election funding.
Groups or committees documented in B2013-0015 include the Bill 7 Coalition, The Body Politic, Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Community Research Initiative of Toronto, Free the Press Foundation, Committee on Homophobia, Positive Space Campaign, Right to Privacy Committee, and the Toronto Gay Community Council. There are also select files related to court cases and affidavits Prof. Rayside was involved in, or wrote, and files related to activism carried out within the University of Toronto, as well as his work related to gender issues, including the Hummel case. Files are arranged alphabetically by name of the group, organization, or person they pertain to, and in rare cases, the name of the issue they concern, if no group, organization, or person name is available. This series also contains one file of photographs and one file of artifacts.
B2023-0032 includes files on political loans, Rayside’s involvement in the apology for the 1981 bath raids in Toronto and other political activity around LGBT rights. Some of the files include the Body Politic, Jordon Pederson, Community One Foundation, Egale, Gay North Bay and the LGBT caucus of the Association of Political Science of Canada, and Sexual Studies Association.
