Celebrating 2SLGBTQI+ Nightlife Resistance: The Thunderhead National Monument Now Open in Downtown Ottawa

August 27, 2026

On August 28, 1971, the first gay rights protest in Canada, known as the “We Demand” rally, took place on Parliament Hill. Fast forward to 2026 and Ottawa is once again marking groundbreaking 2SLGBTQI+ history as the home of a new national monument, the Thunderhead, now officially open in the downtown core.

Developed by the LGBT Purge Fund in partnership with Canadian Heritage and the National Capital Commission (NCC), the creation of the monument was mandated by a Federal Court of Canada order and financed by proceeds from a 2018 class action settlement won against the Government of Canada. The lawsuit was launched by survivors of the LGBT Purge, a calculated and widespread Government of Canada campaign devised to systematically identify and expel thousands of LGBTQ+ employees from the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the federal service from the 1950s to the mid-1990s.

Designed by Public City Architecture, Elder Albert McLeod and artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan with input from thousands of 2SLGBTQI+ community members, the Thunderhead monument draws from Anishinaabe teachings that describe the thunderhead clouds as “home to the Thunderers whose storms renew the land and make things right.”

As documented by the Village Legacy Project, nightlife spaces around the Thunderhead site in the downtown core were both spaces of surveillance (such as the Lord Elgin hotel bar) and refuge throughout the LGBT Purge.

Between the ByWard Market and Centretown, these original stomping grounds of change continue to be a gathering place for the 2SLGBTQI+ nightlife community and allies.

Here are just a few cornerstone Ottawa 2SLGBTQI+ nightlife spaces and events to explore during Pride (and beyond!) in tandem with the unveiling of the Thunderhead monument.