Category Archives: Gay history

Club Carousel Dance Party

Posted on May 9, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 3 comments

Calgary’s first gay bar, Club Carousel, has inspired many contemporary events. The latest will be a dance party thrown by the pop-up collective Pansy Club on May 10th.

The Pansy Club, a significant addition to our community, was established in 2021 as a bi-monthly 2SLGBTQ+ music night at Kaffeeklatsch, a former Beltline cafe at 1205 1 St. SW—coincidentally beside the original Club Carousel at 1207 1 St. Spearheaded by Cal Gibbens, the name Pansy Club was inspired by one of the stories he read in Our Past Matters, a testament to our rich history.

I’m inspired by history. The Pansy Club is a collective with the goal of creating an affirming, safe space. Our events are designed to attract and embrace people who may feel they don’t belong in other spaces, ensuring everyone feels welcome and accepted.
Cal Gibbens

In a lovely resonance, those goals are similar to those of the 1970’s Club Carousel.

Thank you, Cal, we’re looking forward to it!

✨️🎠 CLUB CAROUSEL 🎠✨️

Step back into the 70s and get your groove thang on 🪩✨️Pansy Club brings you a night of soulful disco, house & funk in a throwback to the city’s first-ever gay bar – Club Carousel!🕺

Friday May 10th
At Sunalta Community Hall
8pm – 1am
$10 or PWYC. Advance tickets: here!

Early Mixer 8 – 9pm
Drag Show 9 – 10pm
Dance Party 10pm – 1am

{KA}

3 Comments

Posted in Gay history

Tagged bisexual, Cal Gibbens, Calgary, Club Carousel, culture, gay, Gay history, lesbian, lgbt, lgbtq, pansy club, queer, transgender

Canadian Independent Bookstore Day

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

April 27th is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. If you buy a book at your favourite indie bookshop this Saturday, you can enter a contest to win a $1000 gift certificate.

We love these stores and thank our hometown favourites: Pages, Shelf Life, and Owl’s Nest, for selling hundreds of copies of our imprint ASPublishing’s award-winning books: Our Past Matters and What Narcissus Saw.

Browsing the bookshelves, talking to informed staff, and bumping into people you know are good reasons to shop in indie bookstores. {Plus: social snacking is good for our health}

Most indie bookstores have online shops, so there is no need to support foreign corporate tech giants and send your hard-earned dollars out of the country.

See you at the indie bookstore this Saturday!

{KA}

1 Comment

Posted in Gay history

Tagged bisexual, Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, gay, Glad Day, lesbian, Our Past Matters, Owls Nest Bookstore, Pages on Kensington, queer, Shelf Life, transgender, What Narcissus Saw

Blue Jeans Day had April origins

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

In April, wear blue jeans to support gay rights—so says history!

One of our earliest Calgary Gay History Posts was about Blue Jeans Day at the University of Calgary in the early 1990s. However, we recently discovered details about how the event echoed a gay liberation initiative first begun at Rutgers University by the groundbreaking Rutgers Student Homophile League.

The first Blue Jeans Day occurred in 1970 at Rutgers (although the first advertised event happened in 1974). Blue Jeans Day was traditionally held on a Friday in April and, by the late ’70s, had spread to dozens of campuses in Canada and the United States.

When it was resurrected at colleges in the late 1980s, the event migrated to October to align with National Coming Out Day. Although we have yet to find evidence that the U of C hosted Blue Jeans Days events in the ’70s, we found them on many other campuses.

*1978 Poster from the Saskatchewan* *Archives*

International Blue Jeans Day was often declared at the University of Saskatchewan with little advanced notice. The event forced heterosexuals to find something else to wear! This hilarious event was held by the Gay Academic Union, which existed from 1975-1982.
Saskatchewan Archives Board — Neil Richards Collection

{KA}