Author Archives: Kevin Allen

Missing Michael Green

Posted on February 13, 2015 | Leave a comment

It is with great sadness we learned that Michael Green passed away this week. We have known Michael a long time; he was a keystone of the Calgary cultural community. Indeed, the Calgary Gay History Project itself owes Michael a debt of gratitude. Although the project had been a germ of an idea for years, an initial grant through Calgary 2012 – which Michael had curatorial oversight over – was the push that got us started.

Michael Green (photo: Sharon Stevens via Twitter, @oxyyc)

He personally was in attendance at our first public history presentation in 2013, and proved to be one of our greatest cheerleaders, inviting us (in collaboration with Third Street Theatre) to participate in the 2014 High Performance Rodeo – a definite watershed moment for our community.

Michael’s interest in diversity was genuine. He both delighted in our success and invited us in. Witnessing Making Treaty 7 last year, I felt that inclusiveness again. “We are all treaty people” was a powerful statement that resonated in the audience, and moved me personally.

We at the Calgary Gay History Project offer our sincere condolences to his family, friends, & colleagues. Our thoughts are also with those affected by the greater tragedy of many bright lives lost.

Thank you Michael. We will miss you.

{KA}

Queer Archives in Canada

Posted on February 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

In working on Calgary’s Queer history, the team has been in contact with others across Canada also conducting LGTBQQ research. It’s exciting to meet people passionate about their own projects, to look at the extensive archives and find those great nuggets of information, and read the amazing stories of courage. The types of archives varies greatly: from institutional collections focused on gender and sexuality, to smaller ones in people’s homes. We’re currently creating a database of existing archives in Canada, and have some interesting highlight to share.

The oldest in Canada is the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA). Started in 1973 in a tiny cramped office, the archive has grown to become the largest independent LGBTQ+ archives in the world. Its home in Toronto is literally an old house built in 1858. With a focus on Canadian content, their collection includes personal papers, unpublished documents, publications, audio-visual material, works of art, photographs, posters, and other artifacts. They also host exhibitions. February’s is “Code, Read: Hollywood’s Hays Code and the Queer Stereotypes of the Silver Screen.”

Transgender pioneer Virginia Prince. University of Victoria Transgender Archives

One of the few exclusive transgendered archives is at the University of Victoria. Since 2007 the Special Collections Transgendered Archives has actively been acquiring documents, rare publications, and memorabilia of persons and organizations that have worked for the betterment of transgendered people. The Transgender Archives is accessible to the public, and available to faculty, students, and scholars for teaching and research. The incredible part of this archive is the sheer amount of personal material donated from people across North America. One well-known activist Betty Ann Lind (1931-1998), a founder of the Delta Chi Tri-ESS (Society for the Second Self) chapter of Washington, DC in the early 1970s, the predecessor to the TransGender Educational Association of Greater Washington.

The Neil Richards Collection of Sexual and Gender Diversity at the University of Saskatchewan began as a private collection. Started by its namesake when he was employed by the University Library, Richards developed and help acquire many impressive collections of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender materials, including organizational documents, collections of lesbian and gay pulp literature, magazines and newsletters published in LGBT communities, documentation about theatrical cross-dressing, novels and nonfiction published before 1969, and material on the Gay Rights movement. As of September, 2014, approximately 3,319 titles had been added to the Richards collection.

For more information about Queer archives in Canada, contact us.

{TM}

Butch Bucks YYC

Posted on January 31, 2015 | 3 comments

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Calgary Gay History Project. It seems like we’ve met with a tonne of people in Calgary recently, and on the West Coast this week. Thanks to: Gene, Joey, Tereasa, Lisa, Aaron, Lara, James, Melody, Mark, Geordie, Nigel, Jim and Ayanna for all of the feedback, memories, stories and positive regard.

However, I want to make a couple of special mentions. The Friday before last, Terry MacKenzie donated 4 bags of books to the history project – early gay readers, handbooks, social studies, and manifestos that will assist us as researchers in putting our local findings into a cultural context. Perhaps the most notable contribution though are the Butch Bucks that Terry uncovered. Sourced and retained from some fun event in Calgary in 1978 (Terry thinks the Parkside Continental perhaps), this alternative currency predates Calgary Dollars significantly! If reading this you remember more about Butch Bucks and their origins, please contact us at the project, to fill in the details.

This week I was twice at the BC Gay and Lesbian Archives to meet with archivist and historian Ron Dutton, who has been working on the project for 39 years! The archives, containing 750,000 items are amazingly in his home, but he maintains the collection as a publicly accessible archive. Ron is passionate about our community’s history and a real inspiration for the much younger Calgary Gay History Project. To get a sense of Ron and his mission check out this Vancouver Courier produced video about the archives.