Trailblazing Canadian gay rights activist Michael Hendricks dies

Hendricks and partner René Leboeuf spent 6 years in court fighting for their right to get married

Michael Hendricks, a gay rights pioneer in Canada, has died.

Just two years ago, he was celebrating his 20th wedding anniversary with René Leboeuf — a wedding that was broadcast across Quebec and marked the first time a same-sex couple married in the province.

The couple had spent six years and $300,000 in court fighting for their right to get married, and their wedding took place in Montreal on April 1, 2004, after they had already been together for 30 years.

"If you look at our photos, look at the smile on our faces," said Hendricks in 2024.

According to the monthly gay magazine Fugues, Hendricks had a degenerative lung disease and requested medical assistance in dying.

Claudine Metcalfe told Radio-Canada that Hendricks, who was born in 1941, had a full and rich life.

“He was a devoted man,” Metcalfe said, recalling how Hendricks came to Montreal in his 20s and fell in love with the city, the province and the country.

According to an interview with Fugues earlier this year, he was visiting Montreal in 1968 when his mother received his Vietnam War draft notice. He had already met Americans who had sought refuge in Canada and found help obtaining status here.

“He learned French quickly, with a little, typical, marvelous and recognizable accent. And then he fought for different causes,” Metcalfe said.

Quebec's 1st married same-sex couple reminisces on 20th anniversary

Those causes, working alongside Leboeuf, ranged from joining efforts to combat the HIV/AIDs epidemic to co-founding Lesbians and Gays Against Violence. Hendricks was also the co-ordinator of a gay and lesbian roundtable that went on to become Le Conseil québécois LGBT.

He was the driving force behind the establishment of Parc de l'Espoir, a Montreal space dedicated to the memory of victims of HIV/AIDS.

“The battles fought by Michael Hendricks and his partner have left their mark on the history of our communities. We are all indebted to them,” wrote Denis-Daniel Boullé in Fugues.

Hendricks and Leboeuf have said their marriage was important for gay people to get full rights as Canadian citizens and Quebecers. The gay and lesbian communities at the time were pushing for same-sex relationships and parental rights to be recognized by the government, and were still recovering from the AIDS crisis.

Two years ago, Hendricks recalled how that crisis played a role in the couple’s fight for legal recognition. They would see friends lose everything when their partner died.

"If you lost your partner, you also lost your apartment because your relationship wasn't recognized and you were considered to be just rooming there. The family would come and take all the furniture," said Hendricks.

"We wanted to change that, and we did."

Written by Isaac Olson, with files from Radio-Canada