Calgary Gay History

Late in ’88 Returns for a Second Season

Posted on July 9, 2026 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

Memory is a funny thing. We remember the big moments, but it is often the smaller details that tell us who we were and how we survived.

That is one of the great strengths of Season Two of Late in ’88, the podcast created by Bronwin Parks and Elinor Svoboda. This new season jumps ahead to 1998, their senior year at a Calgary high school, and asks what had changed for queer youth in the decade since 1988—and what had not.

Elinor Svoboda and Bronwin Parks: *Late in ’88 Podcast Hosts*

The Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen was pleased to join Bronwin and Elinor again in Episode 2, “The Decade That Changed Queer Canada.” Together, we discuss the AIDS crisis, Calgary’s first Pride parade in 1990, the Delwin Vriend case, cultural backlash, queer community spaces, and the activism that helped reshape Canada in the 1990s.

The episode is a reminder that queer history is not abstract. It lives in classrooms, bars, courtrooms, bedrooms, hospital rooms, community meetings, and the memories we carry with us. The 1990s brought meaningful legal and social change, but that progress was hard-won. It came from people willing to organize, speak up, care for one another, and imagine a different future.

Podcasts like Late in ’88 matter. They do what good oral history should do: they connect personal memory to a larger historical moment. Bronwin and Elinor are generous and thoughtful guides through their own past. They understand that memory is complicated—and powerful.

Season Two of Late in ’88 is well worth your time. Listen, share it, and then ask yourself: whose story still needs to be recorded?

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged queer, gay, Calgary, lesbian, transgender, AIDS, bisexual, podcast, Bronwin Parks, Elinor Svoboda, Late in '88, High School, William Aberhart High School

Stampede Queer History

Posted on July 2, 2026 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

Every July, I find myself with mixed feelings about the Calgary Stampede.

As a kid, I loved it. I remember the excitement of the parade, free pancake breakfasts, and the feeling that, for ten days, Calgary became a little more joyful and a lot less predictable.

*Our WORD emerged on 17th Ave. in recent days…*

As a historian, though, I also know the Stampede is more complicated than the nostalgia. It’s a carefully crafted story about Calgary and the West—one that celebrates some histories while overlooking others.

Maybe that’s why I keep returning to it.

This month at The Confluence, I’ll be diving into the Stampede’s surprising queer history: the thousands of images of impossibly handsome cowboys, ranch hands, rodeo athletes, and almost naked “beefcakes” that fed into 1950s and 1960s physique photography. They were meant to celebrate rugged western masculinity, but they were also creating the network for a nascent North American gay community.

Join me on Thursday, July 16, for How the West Got Shirtless: Beefcakes, the Stampede, and Queerness. We’ll look at vintage photographs, postcards, and moving images to explore how queer people found themselves reflected in the Calgary Stampede.

*A special summer edition, Hot Dogs & Hot Takes on History, becomes Hot Cakes & Hot Takes on History*

History, conversation, a few surprises—and pancakes for dinner.

I hope to see you there.

🎟️ Tickets: https://www.theconfluence.ca/events/hdht-july2026

{KA}

1 Comment

Posted in Gay history, Press Release

Tagged bisexual, Calgary, Calgary Stampede, gay, Gay history, How the West Got Shirtless, lesbian, physique photography, queer, The Confluence, transgender

Imperial Court Turns 50!

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

{Thanks to Calgary Gay History Project correspondent, William Bridel, who attended the ISCCA Coronation Ball last month! Here are his photos and reflections! -Kevin}

On April 18, 2026, the Westin Hotel was transformed into a sea of black-and-gold glitz, glimmer, glamour, couture, and queer culture. With guests from all over North America alongside local drag artists and their supporters, the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Chinook Arch (ISCCA) celebrated its 50^th anniversary, making it the longest actively running queer organization in Calgary. From humble beginnings in 1976, the Court has become a significant fixture in the city’s queer landscape. Kevin wrote about the Court’s history in a 2017 post, and the Court has also been featured in other stories on the site.

*Nada Nuff and Shane OnYou were crowned Reign 50 Empress and Emperor at the April 18 event following community voting the week prior.*

What has remained constant in the Court’s long existence is its focus on giving back. According to the organization’s website, “the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Chinook Arch is dedicated to fundraising and community support…focused on maximizing contributions to local charities and organizations both within and beyond the LGBTQ+ community”. Representatives from a reign’s chosen charities are presented with cheques at the ball, such as SafeLink, which was one of Reign 49’s chosen benefactors. Over the past 50 years, thousands and thousands of dollars have been given back to Calgary and the surrounding areas by the Court.

*From left to right: Empress Fancy Pants of the Dogwood Monarchist Society (Vancouver), Empress Coco Lachine from the Imperial Court of New York, and the ISCCA’s Princess Jackie Lachine Lawrence.*

An educational bursary, named after the late Jhaque Danyel Stewart Leong, is also handed out at the annual event, helping to support postsecondary students from the Court’s region, which includes all parts of Alberta south of Red Deer. I am particularly grateful for this bursary and Jhaque’s legacy, as a few of my students have been fortunate and grateful recipients over the years, students who have all studied or are studying sport in relation to, broadly, gender and sexual diversity. This year, the bursary was awarded to four deserving individuals, all at various stages of their academic journeys.

*From left to right: Fred Udey, current ISCCA Vice-President, Princess Miss M from Vancouver’s court, and Barkley Huber, most recently Imperial Crown Prince 48 of Calgary*.

Aside from the more formal arrangement with a reign’s chosen charities, the Court has also been generous over the years with other community organizations. Across the materials gathered for my research on sport in Calgary’s queer history, there were several references to the Court’s collaborative nature, contributing in various ways to Calgary’s growing queer community in the 1970s and 1980s, through to today. The program for the 1989 Connection softball tournament featured an ad for a performance of “Beehive, the 60s Musical” by Empress XIII, Justine Tyme, held at The Green Room, which was the upstairs of the Parkside Continental. One of my former students, Connor MacDonald, noted in some of his work that an interview participant, Fred, had commented on the longstanding relationship between the Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association and the Court. Another interview participant, Kevin, who has been involved with Apollo Friends in Sport for many years, noted that Apollo had reached out to the Court more than once to “bring in some of their performers for the Sunday brunch during Western Cup.”

And that last point is an important one. Apart from giving back in material ways, the performances, the events, and the Pride Parade entries that the Court has shared with the Calgary community and beyond have brought an immeasurable amount of queer joy to those who have borne witness over the ISCCA’s five decades.

So here’s to another fifty years!

{WB}