Gay Newswire PINK NEWS reports that stalwart activist Michael Hendricks from Canada, has passed on to the realm of our LGBTQIA ancestors.

He passed away on 18 July through medical assistance after living with a degenerative lung condition. He leaves behind his husband, René Leboeuf, according to a report in the magazine Fugues.

During the HIV and AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, the couple campaigned for equality and collaborated with other activists and the City of Montreal to establish a permanent tribute to those from Quebec who had lost their lives to AIDS. Their work led to the creation of Parc de l’Espoir, located in Montreal’s Gay Village.

Later in his life, at roughly the age of 80, Hendricks helped mobilise community opposition against planned alterations to Parc de l’Espoir. Following the campaign, the local authority dropped its proposals.

First Same-Sex Couple Married in Quebec

Hendricks and Leboeuf also secured their place in Canadian gay history by becoming the first same-sex couple to be legally married in Quebec. The wedding took place on 1 April, 2004, after they had been together for three decades.

The couple had launched a legal challenge against the Quebec government in November 2001, contending that the province’s refusal to allow same-sex marriages violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In September 2002, the Quebec Superior Court found that restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples breached the Charter and confirmed that the relevant laws would be struck down in Quebec within two years.

However, the pair appealed the decision in January 2004, pointing out that similar rulings in Ontario and British Columbia had resulted in an immediate end to the same-sex marriage ban. The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in their favour on 19 March that year, declaring that same-sex marriage licences must be issued without delay.

After they were finally married under law, a then-62-year-old Hendricks said: “It’s marvelous. We just had our big moment. Everything changes. We’re now recognised as a couple – socially and even to ourselves. It’s a commitment that’s unbreakable.”