Tag Archives: Calgary

An Evening with Tom Symington at Shelf Life Books

Posted on August 13, 2026 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

As a warm-up for Calgary Pride, on Wednesday, August 26 at 7:00 PM, join us at Shelf Life Books for a conversation with Tom Symington, author of Not So Normal: Memoirs of a Gay Boomer, hosted by the Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen.

*Tom’s excellent book will be for sale at the event, too!*

Tom grew up in post-World War II Calgary in a loving home and, as a child, didn’t think of himself as “different.” But as he got older, he found himself navigating a world where being gay came with social pressures, discrimination, and very real legal consequences.

In Not So Normal, Tom looks back on that journey with honesty and warmth. His story takes him from Alberta to Sierra Leone, France, and beyond, while tracing the enormous changes in gay life and gay rights that took place around him. It’s a deeply personal coming-of-age story, but also one that captures a remarkable period of Canadian history—and reminds us that progress can never be taken for granted.

There’s a personal connection behind this event, too. Kevin met Tom while researching the Kootenay Gay History Project. Their conversations about Tom’s life and experiences helped reveal some of the queer history of Invermere and the Columbia Valley.

Expect an engaging conversation about growing up, finding your place in the world, the changes Tom has witnessed over his lifetime, and why sharing these stories still matters.

There will also be a Q&A, so bring questions and join the conversation.

{KA}

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