At the Glenbow today

At the Glenbow Museum Archives going through their paper archives and the Doug Young fonds (files).

Doug Young, 1950-1994, was born near Taber, Alberta and raised there and in Medicine Hat. He attended Medicine Hat College and the University of Calgary. Young worked with the Alberta Service Corps for five years and Canada Customs for three. He was active in the Gay rights movement in Calgary and served as the president of Gay Information and Resources Calgary (GIRC) from 1977 to 1979, and as a board member from 1977 to 1981. He was active in many other organizations including the Alberta Lesbian and Gay Rights Association, AIDS Calgary, Gay and Lesbian Legal Advocates Calgary (GALLAC), Right to Privacy Committee, and the Gay and Lesbian Community Police Liaison Committee.

There was widespread discrimination of the queer community in Calgary in the 1970s, that included the police, politicians and the public at large: documented quite clearly in the fonds.  Also noteworthy, was the contributions of the courage queers who stood up to society in face of that discrimination and demanded change.

I am attaching an article by Len Girivitz, that recounts a sort of local Stonewall moment, that catalyzed forming a queer activist group.