Tim McCaskell

Tim McCaskell (born 1951) is a Canadian writer, educator, and activist involved in gay rights, HIV/AIDS, and anti-apartheid advocacy.

McCaskell began his career as a writer for the gay liberation magazine The Body Politic. After the 1981 police raids on gay bathhouses in Toronto, McCaskell organized protests and legal defense funds with the Right to Privacy Committee.

Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, McCaskell co-founded AIDS Action Now! which organized for the rights of people with HIV, including treatment access. In 1989, he disrupted the opening ceremony of the International AIDS Conference with other activists to demand a bill of rights for people with HIV. He stated: "On behalf of people with AIDS from Canada and around the world, I would like to officially open this Fifth International Conference on AIDS!"

In the late 1980s, McCaskell advocated for the release of gay anti-apartheid activist Simon Nkoli through the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee. Nearly 20 years later, he co-founded and served as spokesperson for Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

For 20 years, McCaskell was an employee of the Toronto District School Board, working on social equity educational programs. After retiring, he wrote Race to Equity (2005) about his work at the school board. In 2016, he published Queer Progress: From Homopobia to Homonationalism about his life and the gay rights movement in Canada from 1974 to 2014.