Kevin has spent the week in Ottawa: working, doing research and going to museums. The Canadian Museum of History just unveiled its new permanent exhibition: the Canadian History Hall – quite impressive. Looking for Calgary gay history connections, we were surprised to find a couple. A photo of Jean L’Heureux (the subject of last week’s post – although he was not cited in the picture) and a rainbow pride banner with its origin story which was created in Calgary in 2005.
We also stopped into the Canadian War Museum to get some snaps of the “Electropsychometer” also know as the Fruit Machine, which the Canadian Government used to eliminate homosexuals from the public service in the 1960s. Tereasa wrote a post about it a few years ago.
The Fruit Machine at the Canadian War Museum, Kevin Allen photo.
Pride Week in Ottawa begins shortly and there are already signs of rainbows popping up in the nation’s capital, but I am looking forward to coming home to experience YYC Pride. We will have a history booth at Pride in the Park on September 3rd and there are a couple of gay history walks planned on August 31st and September 2nd. We hope to see you out.
{KA}
