Tag Archives: Calgary

Calgary, 1965 – Anglican Pastor Wants Homosexuals in His Flock

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

“The time has come for the church to become the Good Samaritan, instead of ignoring homosexuals as they suffer at the wayside.” So declared Reverend Richard E. Clark, pastor of the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, Calgary, in his Sunday sermon of March 28th, 1965. The sermon caused enough sensation to be reported in time for the daily news on Monday, March 29th.

At a time when homosexuality was not discussed in polite conversation, Clark spent much of his oration describing the status of homosexuals in Canadian society, stating that the church has overlooked the problem and abdicated responsibility to both psychiatrists and government. He suggested to his congregation that they begin to recognize that homosexuals are indeed sinful but no more sinful than “normal” society.

He was inspired to this point of view by Pierre Berton’s 1965 book, The Comfortable Pew: a critical look at Christianity and the religious establishment in the new age. In it Berton makes the case that the homosexual is the modern day equivalent of the leper in our society.

Reverend Clark concluded that, “If the Anglican Church of Canada wishes to make a significant contribution to the work of God then let us announce without hedging we invite you, the homosexuals and lesbians into our pews.”

[Both the clipped article and Berton’s book can be found at the Calgary Public Library. The article was found in the Central Library’s 4th Floor Local History Room]

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged anglican church, Calgary, calgary public library, gay, Gay history, Pierre Berton, queer

Gay Clubs in Calgary as far back as 1939!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

Back at the University of Calgary archives this week, looking at old theses – the one’s that had to be manually typed with splotchy typewriters! Gold was struck in finding Audrey Dwornik’s, Master of Social Work thesis titled: Self-help and Homsexuality (1970).

The premise of her paper is that groups of deviants because of societal pressures, seek each other out for support, acceptance and a sense of freedom. Despite the language, Dwornik was largely sympathetic to the plight of homosexuals at the time; she used “deviant” in an academic sense, as in “deviating from the norm.”

As part of her research she looked into the history of homosexual friendship groups in Calgary. She found the history of gay clubs in Calgary ran back to at least 1939. She writes, “It was in this year that a homosexual was arrested and he told the police about a homosexual club he belonged to. The name of the club was the Pansy Club. The members of this club rented an apartment where no one lived, but where they had their parties in private away from the fears of being arrested. The club mainly had a social function, but it also acted as a means of self-protection for its members while participating in homosexual relationships.”

There were Pansy Clubs in many North American cities, a caberet-style phenomenon that sprouted in New York and spread. Who knew it had made it all of the way to Calgary, whose population in 1939 was 85,726!

Check out this link to Pansy Clubs of the 1920s and 1930s, featuring the song, “Masculine Women, Feminine Men” (1926) Fox-Trot, played by the Savoy Havana Band.

Sidebar: Dworkin made some funny observations about homosexual friendship groups. For example, she explains, “The type of homosexual know as the ‘queen’ is only present in overt groups. Their role is to provide a place where the group may gather and where its members may have their ‘affairs.’ ‘She’ also helps finance members in distress, acts as intermediary in making sexual contacts, partially controls the entrance of new members by warning those already members of persons who may try to take advantage of them, such as persons who like to steal from homosexuals.” Phew, what a job description for those 20th century queens – expectations must have been high…

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged Calgary, gay, Gay history, pansy club, queer, University of Calgary

Buried Memory/Alarming Find in the U of C Archives

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Kevin Allen | 3 comments

Younger folk here at Calgary Outlink have asked me what the environment was like for queers in Calgary when I was their age. [For the record I am 42.] I often reply that there was an element of danger being out, going to clubs, and in associating in general. I remember nervously looking over my shoulder around the Beltline, and knew of people who had been bashed.

However, combing through the archives at the University of Calgary this morning, I found this poster in a 1992 file from the Gay and Lesbian Academics Students and Staff Society (GLASS) that gave me a jolt.

A U of C undergraduate student at the time, I have a distant memory of this event. On June 17, 1992 this exact poster was found tacked to the door of GLASS – the invitation to a gay bashing to be held at the same location at an upcoming rally for gay and lesbian rights.

In a press release the next day, Greg Lane, Co-chair for GLASS wrote, “Lesbians, gays and bisexuals live in a continual climate of potential violence. I am deeply concerned about these tools of oppression.” He noted that it was not the first time that GLASS had been targeted on campus.

In a move of solidarity, student politicians from the Students’ Unions of U of C, SAIT and Mount Royal College, all swiftly and publicly condemned the action of the unknown poster author, who to my knowledge was never caught, despite police involvement.

[Special thanks to Karen Buckley at the U of C Archives for research assistance.]