![[Home]](/graphics/2020-02_logo.png){kind=logo}
2022
I use to go to all the gay clubs back in the 1970s when I was a student nurse staying at the nurse's residence beside the Nova Scotia Hospital (now torn down). There was one night when my then girlfriend and I came out of The Turret and were assaulted by another couple of lesbians. That was before cell phones, but someone must have called the police cos the next thing I knew, there were five cop cars racing down Barrington Street with sirens and flashing lights.
To make a long story short, the other couple ran around the corner and took off, while Halifax City's Finest roughed up Margaret and I, handcuffed us and threw us into the 'drunk tank' overnight. At the time, I was in good shape, as I had played a lot of sports in school and although I'm not a physical person, as soon as I saw how they were treating Margaret, I lost it. It took five full grown men to throw me onto the bonnet of one of the cars to handcuff me, cos I was pissed (please excuse the language). Everyone who had been in The Turret and had witnessed the other couple beating up on us, kept hollering to the cops that they had the wrong couple. But, as everyone knows, the police didn't care/still don't in my opinion, which lesbians they got, as long as they grabbed and man handled any lesbians!
In 1983, when my then lover and I were together, her husband (moved out of the home) kept harassing her about me being around their two minor children.
Before Linda and I took Bruce to court, they had both agreed to share the children and have alternate weekends. The weekends Bruce had them, he'd 'pump them' -- ask them for information about whether I had been there or not. As Adam was only 3 years old and Crystal only 8, they didn't know any better, so would tell him. If I was there on a weekend that Linda had them, he'd threaten her to fight for custody; if I hadn't been there, he didn't care and wouldn't bother her. It kept happening and Linda was getting freaked out and I was getting tired of him doing it, so one day I told her enough was enough - let's take him to court for your divorce and challenge him for custody of the children.
Linda received her divorce, we won custody and were awarded the children. Thus, we became the first lesbian couple in Nova Scotia and possibly all of Canada to do so. It's a precedent case and is documented in the Supreme Court Law Books in Halifax. The info was 'locked up' for 20 years to protect their names, as the two kids were minors.
I have part of a copy of the case and have given the Daniel MacKay a copy as well.
Source: Email from Donna, July, 2022
There is a scan on file. The original is in the RainbowSeniorsArchive.