Tag Archives: history

The University of Calgary’s Queer History

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

Happy New Year. 2014 promises to be another fruitful year for the Calgary Gay History Project. Please join us on Thursday, January 16th at the University of Calgary for a lecture and panel discussion on Calgary’s Queer History.

The lecture from 12:30 – 1:30 PM in the History Department (Room SS623), will uncover the hidden social-cultural past of GLBT people in Calgary’s post-war period. In the 1950s and 60s, queers were widely deemed to be mentally ill and often treated as criminals by society. Kevin Allen, from the Calgary Gay History Project, will explore how a growing social and political community with support from key institutions such as the University of Calgary played a strategic role in queer emancipation. This research presentation is co-sponsored by The Institute for Gender Research and the Department of History.

Check out these previous queer history posts: Harold Call at the U of C (1969); and gay bashing invitation (1992), to get a taste of how important the U of C was in advancing new frontiers of thought while sometimes clashing with society at large.

After the lecture, there will be an afternoon panel discussion from 2:30-4:30 PM in The Loft (4th Floor, MacEwan Hall) exploring the topic of doing queer history research itself. Titled, “Doing Queer Public History” the discussion is being co-sponsored by the The Institute for Gender Research and Queers on Campus, and will feature, Kevin Allen from the Calgary Queer History Project, Karen Buckley from the U of C Archives, and Annette Timm, from the U of C Department of History.

Universities, historically, have been centres of liberalization. Even today, this work continues. The University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Service put out a job call this week for their new We are Here: Edmonton Queer History Project. Congratulations to the U of A, we look forward to working closely with them, on our shared Alberta history.

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged Calgary, gay, Gay history, history, human-rights, lesbian, queer, University of Calgary

Queer History Project News

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

It has been all quiet on the website for a bit, so I wanted to give you an update about work that is going on behind the scenes for 2014.

Club Carousel Mascot

Firstly, we are working with Third Street Theatre to present the Club Carousel Cabaret, January 30th, as part of the 2014 High Performance Rodeo. Club Carousel was the first gay owned social club (and drinking place) in Calgary which began in 1968. It was the dawn of the community as we know it today – and it began while homosexuality was still a criminal offense (decriminalization happened in 1969 – read story: here). Third Street, Calgary’s Queer Theatre Company has a new show opening this week: UNSEX’d – check it out!

Running Oct 29th – Nov 2nd.

Secondly, we are specifically researching the University of Calgary’s role in our human rights movement, over the past 45 years. This will culminate in a new public presentation, January 16th at the U of C’s Institute for Gender Research. From Noon – 1 PM there will be a public lecture, and from 2-4 PM a panel discussion on queer history in general.

Professor Rebecca Sullivan, pictured here with co-op student Sasha Krioutchkova, has led the relaunch of the Institute for Gender Research. Photo by Riley Brandt

New history posts will begin in January, but as always please contact us, if you have artifacts you would like us to see, or stories you would like to tell!

[KA]

Calgary’s First Pride Parade – 1991?

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

Thanks everyone who came out to the Gay History Walk last night – what a crowd and great evening! On the walk I heard that Pride Calgary organizers are expecting 35,000 – 40,000 people out for the parade on Sunday. Amazing. So I dug into the vaults and asked colleagues a few questions to determine when was the first Calgary pride parade. I will call it as being 1991, but the demarcation line is a bit fuzzy… Read on.

As I mentioned in a previous post there had been a Calgary march and rally back in 1980. However a Pride Parade in the classic sense, with its homage to Stonewall (being in June), occurred on June 16, 1991, which also happened to be Father’s Day. The city was in a polarized uproar because Mayor Al Duerr, had gone out on a political limb and signed a proclamation declaring June 16-23, 1991 as the first “Gay Rights Week.”

The Mayor’s office fielded hundreds of angry calls condemning the decision. Some Aldermen objected strenuously as well. Alderman John Schmal said, the problem with Duerr’s proclamation was made on behalf of the citizens of Calgary and city council, adding “I don’t support any of that stuff; why don’t we just declare a heterosexual week?” Alderman Ray Clark concurred: “If you want to put our names on this proclamation you’d better ask our permission.” Aldermen Ray Clark and Carol Kraychy took particular offense at the choice of Father’s Day to commence the week.

About 400 people marched down Stephen Avenue ending up at City Hall to listen to a speech by B.C. New Democrat MP Svend Robinson. He told the gathered assembly that the greatest barrier facing gays is their invisibility and silence. “We are here to remind political leaders it is wrong in Alberta that it’s still legal to fire us from jobs, throw us from homes, and deny us goods and services because of who we love,” he exclaimed.

Nancy Miller, one of the rally organizers remembers, “It had been overcast that day and when Svend got up to the mic to speak the clouds parted and a beam of light hit him as he spoke – it was amazing.”

It was not all transcendental however, as two dozen protesters – one with a pit bull – behaved badly, eventually leading to three protester arrests. Christian churches from an assortment of denominations had their own rally as well, drawing 1000 people “to pray for the city,” organizer Bob Gal explained. He added that holding their event on Father’s day was appropriate as Christians had gathered to honour their Father.

Mayor Duerr, facing continued political pressure in the weeks after Pride, eventually renounced his decision, publicly admitted to making a mistake with the proclamation vowing it would never happen again. In 1992, the Gay and Lesbian community proclaimed, “Gay and Lesbian Pride Week” themselves, taking ads out in public newspapers without any mayoral or civic endorsement. And in 1993, Edmonton’s mayor Jan Reimer, proclaimed her city’s first Gay and Lesbian Pride Day, irritating Duerr’s (and Calgary’s) anti-proclamation stance.

Additional notes: Calgary’s first “Pride Week” started as a weekend of workshops in 1988. In 1990, Calgary’s 3rd Annual “Pride Festival” had a political rally that drew 400 at Memorial Park. Consequently the first parade in 1991, was actually part of the 4th Annual Pride Festival.

[KA]