Champion Of Gay Rights NDP Leader Jack Layton Succumbs To Cancer At 61

Jack Layton has died. A terrible loss, the National NDP leader passed away at his Toronto home early Monday morning. “We deeply regret to inform you that the Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45am today, Monday, Aug 22," reads a statement from his wife, Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael Layton. "He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones. Details of Mr Layton’s funeral arrangements will be forthcoming." Party president Brian Topp says Layton will be remembered as a rare politician who never gave in to cynical thinking, and that in a world of increasingly poisonous attack politics, hopes politicians remember that Mr. Layton’s positivity struck a cord with Canadians. “He taught us some things that we must not forget,” Mr. Topp told The Globe and Mail. “He taught us that the alternative to the kind of angry politics that you see in so much of North America these days is its opposite. That basic note of hopefulness and optimism was his antidote to angry and small politics and I think you can see in the remarkable result he got that people responded extraordinarily well. Because that’s what they’re looking for. Nobody can replace Jack Layton, but it falls to us to carry on his work.” Layton lost his biggest battle early Monday morning, succumbing to cancer. He was 61. Mr. Layton looked gaunt and his voice very weak, when he held a news conference in July in Toronto to announce he was suffering from a second cancer. He vowed, then, that he would be back to work when the House of Commons resumed on Sept. 19. He did not reveal what that cancer was. It is still not known. Last month, Mr. Layton asked his caucus to accept a rookie MP, Nycole Turmel, as interim leader. It is not clear now whether she will continue in that role or how a formal leadership transition will work. A popular politician – nicknamed Smiling Jack, for his charm and enthusiasm with life and politics – Mr. Layton orchestrated his party going from third place to Official Opposition status in the May 2 election. Although he had been fighting a prostate cancer diagnosis and a fractured hip, he appeared healthy during the campaign. In fact, the cane he used to support himself became a lightning rod as the party’s support grew and grew. The NDP victory in the election was based primarily on a huge breakthrough in Quebec and the collapse of the Bloc Québécois. In an lengthy interview with The Globe and Mail the day before the government fell last March, Mr. Layton said that he was fine, did not know why his hip had fractured but said the cancer had not spread. He had led the NDP since 2003, and had just turned 61 on July 18. An advocate and best friend of the LGBT community, Layton’s contributions to the advancement of rights for homosexuals in Canada are incalculable, first elected in 1982 alderman of Toronto City Council Ward 6, with strong support from the gay and lesbian community. He served as chair of Toronto’s Board of Health from 1985-1991, piloting the city’s response to the growing AIDS crisis, including safer-sex education and distribution of condoms. Layton remembered that “We had calls at the time for closing the bathhouses and talking about abstinence and absolutely not handing out condoms. So we went on a very active campaign specifically to hand out condoms and to make sure that public education was going on in the bathhouses.” In May, 1987, he called for Toronto to spend $2.1 million on a special AIDS defence team. It is the first time any such plan has been proposed by a city. At the time, there were at least 232 people who had contracted AIDS in Toronto. At his wedding to Olivia Chow, in 1998, Layton expresses his desire to see the day when his gay and lesbian friends can marry under the law. Seventeen years later, he would cast one of the critical votes for marriage equality in Parliament. In 1989, he assisted the Hassle Free Clinic in presenting motions to the Board of Health and Toronto City Council supporting anonymous testing. At the time, provincial law banned anonymous testing and required positive HIV test results to be reported to the Ministry of Health. Both council and the board called on the province to change the law. The law was eventually changed in 1991 after a change in government. In 1990, he played crucial role in brokering peace between the city and gay bathhouse operators. At the time, Toronto was cracking down on bathhouses and denying new licences to operators. When Peter Bochove tried to open what would eventually become Steamworks, his permit application was denied and he was forced to go to the courts, which ruled in his favour. The city continued to refuse his permit application, forcing Bochove to seek a contempt of court ruling, which could have put the city on the hook for more than $1 million in damages. Layton got council to approve Bochove’s permit in exchange for his abandoning the damages. The council decision set a precedent of legislative approval for bathhouses in the city, protecting bathhouses from future city harassment. In 1996, Layton was honoured as a hero by the Toronto Pride Day Committee. In January, 2003, he was elected leader of the federal NDP. In October Layton delivered his first speech in the House of Commons, and in describing his riding of Toronto-Danforth, he said “Finally, I would like to mention that it is the location of a very special church called the Metropolitan Community Church. It is a church wherein the first gay marriage was performed in Canada (On January 14, 2001). I had the experience of being there and I am very proud to have been there. It is the home of the gay and lesbian community in many ways, and it is one that speaks out on the issues of human rights.” On June 28, 2005 – Parliament passes the same-sex marriage law. Layton had decreed that the issue was a matter of equality and that the NDP would have to stand united in favour of it. He was the only party leader to whip the vote on same-sex marriage. When NDP member Bev Desjarlais voted against the bill, she was relieved of her critic's duties and eventually forced from the NDP caucus. Same sex marriage became law on July 20, 2005, after passing through the Senate and receiving royal assent.