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Kootenay Gay History Project

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

Readers of the Calgary Gay History Project might be interested to know that Kevin Allen has launched a new research initiative: the Kootenay Gay History Project, which explores queer history in rural South-Eastern British Columbia. The goal is practical: to preserve local history and make it available through a website, archival and display materials, and eventually, a book.

The project, commissioned by the Fernie Pride Society, is collecting stories, records, and local research about 2SLGBTQ+ people in communities across the region. Rural queer history sometimes stumps historians; it is more hidden and less networked than urban queer history, but Kevin relishes the challenge and has a local connection.

For 20 years, Kevin has had two homes, one in Calgary and one in Fernie {because he married an East Kootenay guy}! He says that starting the Kootenay queer history initiative has been an intriguing counterfoil to the Calgary project. In fact, many Rocky Mountain queers decamped for the cities of Calgary and Vancouver to seek a larger gay community, only to return to their hometowns in later life. Consequently, the two History Projects inform each other and highlight how queer mobility affected rural activism.

And Calgarians went to the Rockies, too! Perhaps you participated in the annual Fruit Float weekend down the Slocan River in the 80s. Or did you attend the Nelson-based lesbian performance festival Sappho Sez in the 90s? Do you have a queer Kootenay connection you’d like to share? Email us at kootenaygayhistory@gmail.com or see our Instagram page @kootenaygayhistory.

During a West Kootenay research trip, we were given a direct-action sticker from the early 70s by Michael Wicks, founder of the Nelson Queer Archive. The sticker was produced by the Canadian Gay Activists Alliance (Vancouver), one of Canada’s earliest Gay Liberation organizations.

*Original Direct Action Sticker from the early 1970s*

Michael said the stickers were put on telephone poles for fun and consciousness-raising on Davie Street in Vancouver. Another version had: “SMILE if you’re GAY” with the same Cheshire Cat. Well, we’re stuck on history.

Happy Spring!🌞

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged bisexual, Calgary, Canadian Gay Activists Alliance, Fernie Pride, Fruit Float, gay, Gay history, Kevin Allen, Kootenay Gay History Project, lesbian, Michael Wicks, Nelson, Nelson Queer Archive, queer, Sappho Sez, transgender, Vancouver

Giller Mayr

Posted on November 10, 2022 by Kevin Allen | 4 comments

We are delighted that Calgary queer author Suzette Mayr has won the 2022 Giller Prize for her latest novel, The Sleeping Car Porter. It is the story of Baxter, a closeted gay Black man working as a porter on a Canadian passenger train in 1929.

Suzette Mayr with her Giller Prize. Photo: Taro PR via Xtra.ca

Of the winning book, the jury wrote:

“Suzette Mayr brings to life –believably, achingly, thrillingly –a whole world contained in a passenger train moving across the Canadian vastness, nearly one hundred years ago. As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate –and eerily contemporary. The sleeping car porter in this sleek, stylish novel is named R.T. Baxter –called George by the people upon whom he waits, as is every other Black porter. Baxter’s dream of one day going to school to learn dentistry coexists with his secret life as a gay man, and in Mayr’s triumphant novel we follow him not only from Montreal to Calgary, but into and out of the lives of an indelibly etched cast of supporting characters, and, finally, into a beautifully rendered radiance.”

We last saw Suzette two years ago in the depths of the Covid pandemic at the Fernie Pride Festival. There was a window in September 2020 when public health restrictions allowed for outdoor gatherings in restricted numbers. So despite the evening chill and the anxiety of the early pandemic, Suzette came out for Pride. Her author talk and reading was from Monoceros—a previously celebrated, queer-themed work, which had been long-listed for the Giller Prize.

Authors Angie Abdou and Suzette Mayr at the Fernie Pride Festival, Sept. 25, 2020.

Our literary event host, author Angie Abdou, and Suzette were good-humoured about the hot drinks, warm clothes and torch heaters that made the event possible. Despite the obstacles, we were all so grateful to be together after months of being home alone. Thank you, Suzette, for showing up for the queer community the way you do. We’re such big fans and proud of your success—congratulations!

{KA}