Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer Wayne Davis had a distinguished 18-year career with the force. That all ended when his homosexuality was discovered after he visited a gay bar.
“I was called into administration one day, and they said ‘Someone saw you in a gay bar. Why were you in a gay bar?’ I guess I could have said I was there with a gay friend but I was tired and a little bit defiant. I simply said ‘I was in a gay bar because I’m gay,’” Davis told Global News.
Davis’s story is one of many featured in Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge, a pop-up exhibition at the Embassy of Canada by the LGBT Purge Fund and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The title of the exhibition is a play on the popular Canadian song, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” by Bruce Cockburn, famously covered by The Barenaked Ladies.
The exhibition details the history of the 2SLGBTQI+ purge in Canada, which was a government campaign that investigated, harassed and expelled 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP and federal public service. Over several decades, countless 2SLGBTQI+ individuals were subject to human rights violations by their own government.
A uniquely Canadian term, 2SLGBTQI+ stands for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and others. Two-Spirit is a term often used by Indigenous populations to describe a person whose identity encompasses both male and female spirits.
“What stays with me is the legacy of these amazing individuals,” Riva Harrison, the museum’s vice‐president for External Relations and Community Engagement said in a promotional video June 20. “They stood up and said no to the most daunting of employers, the Canadian government.”
Harrison shared in the video that one of the most meaningful parts of her job was working with survivors of the purge, when countless Canadians lost their employment in the military, the RCMP and the civil service.
Written in French and English, the exhibition also details legislative and political wins in the country in the struggle for 2SLGBTQI+ rights. Included in the exhibition is a significant milestone when in 2017, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for historical injustices against the LGBT community during a speech in the House of Commons.
“It is with shame and sorrow and deep regret for the things we have done that I stand here today and say: We were wrong. We apologise. I am sorry. We are sorry,” Trudeau said in the house chamber.
Additionally, Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, also enacted sweeping changes to the criminal code, partially decriminalizing queer sex between men over the age of 21. However, many 2SLGBTQI+ people still continued to be arrested for expressing their sexuality.
This pop-up exhibition has been on tour throughout locations in Canada, from Alberta, to British Columbia, and to Ontario. It will currently be situated at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., until August 29, before moving its final destination to the National Arts Centre in Ontario.
This travelling exhibition complements a more comprehensive exhibition, Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge, which is open at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg until early 2026. Meanwhile, this pop‐up exhibition consists of three square pods that contain images and texts, as well as a bilingual video.
“This pop‐up exhibition speaks to decades of human rights violations against 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians who wanted to serve their country and the brave activists who fought back. It is designed to educate and inspire Canadians to help create a future in which the rights of all 2SLGBTQI+ people are respected,” the museum’s website states.
The exhibit will run until September 5th, 2025. The Embassy of Canada’s gallery is open to the public Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, free of charge, at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. The embassy is accessible via bus and Metro, and hosts bike parking on-site.