Windi Earthworm, a gay artist and activist, lived in Calgary in the 1970’s, and was notable for his gender non-conforming dress and street music. {Note: this post was updated and republished on Feb 2, 2023: here.}
Windi Earthworm circa 1979. Photo: François Couture from kersplebedab.com
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The Ladder was a monthly publication from 1956-1972 of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first Lesbian civil rights organization in the United States.
Calgary’s Dr. Carolyn Anderson in 2001 did her PhD social work thesis on The Voices of Older Lesbian Women: An Oral History (you can find it online at Library and Archives Canada: here).
Sue, one of the local lesbian voices featured in the thesis, recalls the publication:
“I did find out about the Ladder and subscribed to it. The Ladder was a lesbian newsletter that originated out of San Francisco and it came in a brown paper wrapper. When it came I devoured it and then hid it cause you know it was a lesbian magazine and you couldn’t just leave it lying out. I don’t know how I found about the Ladder but it became my lifeline. It meant that there were lesbians out there.”
In the 1950s and 1960s publications like The Ladder created the early foundations for gay liberation, through the development of a network of LGBTQ people who had previously been isolated.
The DOB was founded in San Francisco in 1955, by lovers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, they initially started the organization as a social group to meet more lesbian couples. It grew quickly, became more political over time, and developed chapters in many cities. The Ladders’s very secret membership list had 3800 subscribers by 1970.
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in the 1950s
Every issue of The Ladder stated the DOB Mission Statement in its inside cover:
This past Sunday, The GLBT Historical Society of San Francisco marked the 60th anniversary of the DOB with a private reception. The guest of honour was 91-year-old Phyllis Lyon, the surviving cofounder of the organization. The Society’s Facebook page has posted some heartwarming photos of the celebration.
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Posted in Gay history
Tagged bisexual, Carolyn Anderson, Daughters of Bilitis, DOB, gay, Gay history, GLBT Historical Society, human-rights, Ladder, lesbian, Phyllis Lyon, queer, San Francisco, transgender
The rallying cry of gay liberation throughout the 1970s, was in fact coined in 1968 by pre-Stonewall American gay rights activist Frank Kameny. Frequently found on placards and buttons, the slogan also made its way into famous liberation manifestos. Lesbian activist, Martha Shelley’s 1972 booklet, “Gay is Good” was, and still is, radical and explosive:
Look out, straights. Here comes the Gay Liberation Front, springing up like warts all over the bland face of Amerika, causing shudders of indigestion in the delicately balanced bowels of the movement.”
Gay is Good was heard in Canada also. The country’s first large scale political demonstration on Parliament Hill was on August 28, 1971. Despite the rain, over 100 activists marched and picketed. Toronto Gay Action’s Charlie Hill proclaimed Gay is Good during his historic speech in support of the “We Demand” brief submitted to the federal government a week prior.
Charlie Hill delivering demands in 1971. Click photo to see CBC footage of demonstration. Photo credit: Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
Gay liberation made its way to Calgary in 1972 with the short-lived formation of a local chapter of the Gay Liberation Front. Calgary liberation activists mobilized around a more permanent organization in June 1976: the Gay Information Resource Centre (GIRC). In 1980 GIRC organized the first gay rights political demonstration in Alberta, with our very own “placard-waving homosexuals” on the steps of Calgary City Hall.
Gay is good.
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Posted in Gay history
Tagged bisexual, Charlie Hill, Frank Kameny, gay, Gay history, gay liberation front, GIRC, human-rights, lesbian, Martha Shelley, queer, transgender, We Demand
Calgary Gay History 