Tag Archives: human-rights

The venerable Loose Moose Theatre

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

Like the Plaza Theatre, another cultural institution, the Loose Moose Theatre Company was an early adopter of gay content in Calgary. Founded in 1977, Loose Moose is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Back in 1980, it co-produced along with Gay Information and Resources Calgary (GIRC), Fortune and Men’s Eyes.

Fortune and Men’s Eyes is a play set in a Canadian prison for youth and deals with society’s injustice towards gay people. Written in Canada’s Centennial Year, 1967, by John Herbert, the play shocked audiences and helped force Canadian society to acknowledge the existence and rights of homosexuals.

“Norman Nadel, reviewing the play for the New York Tribune, claimed the homosexual drama was so disgusting that the mention of someone vomiting in the prison’s off-stage toilet came like a breath of spring. Herbert Whittaker, in the Globe and Mail, called the play ‘the art of washing our dirty linen in the neighbor’s yard.'”*

Playwright John Herbert was born in Toronto, Ontario, October 13, 1926; and died in Toronto on June 22, 2001. The twelve editions of Fortune and Men’s Eyes published by Grove Press in New York have made it the most published Canadian play in history. It won the 1975 Chalmers Award for best Canadian play, and has been published in several Canadian play anthologies. MGM adapted the play for film in 1970, using a former Quebec City prison as its set.

* from the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia entry for Fortune and Men’s Eyes

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Tagged Calgary, gay, Gay history, human-rights, Loose Moose, queer, theatre

LGBT History Month – check out this CBC video from 1959!

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

Happy October, which also happens to be LGBT History Month in North America. LGBT History Month began in 1994, founded by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney Wilson who was concerned about the lack of LGBT issues in the education curriculum.

October was chosen by Wilson because National Coming Out Day already was established and well known, on October 11, and October commemorated the first march on Washington by queer activists in 1979. LGBT History Month is intended to encourage honesty and openness about being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Speaking of honest and openness. I discovered this early pioneering video on the CBC’s digital archives website, titled, Homosexuality in Canada: A psychiatric ‘problem’.” The synopsis is as follows: “It’s 1959, and homosexuality is a topic few are willing to discuss. Like some of the people interviewed on the street in this CBC Television clip, many believe that homosexuals should be locked up. Most in the medical profession believe homosexuality is, at best, a psychiatric problem. But a gay man — interviewed in silhouette to protect his identity — says society has to get used to homosexuals, and not the other way around.”

The 27-minute documentary concludes with an interview of British lawyer, H.A.D. Oliver who concludes nobly, “We feel – many of us – that the homosexual who performs what to him is a natural act, in the privacy of his home, with other adults similarly inclined, does no harm to society. He does not interfere with society, and why therefore should society interfere with him?” Why indeed…

Open minds at U of C. In 1969 before Stonewall?

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

On Tuesday, February 11th, 1969 more than 300 staff and students at the U of C attended a lecture in MacEwan Hall by Harold Call, gay publisher and activist. He was speaking at a University of Calgary Civil Liberties Association session billed as Homosexuality: A police industry.

Harold Call, born in Trenton, Missouri on September 20, 1917, was one of the founding members of the San Francisco chapter of the Mattachine Society. Call created and edited the Mattachine Review, one of the earliest periodicals dedicated to discussing issues of the homosexual community.

In his address he spoke of sexual equality and the legalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults. He also spoke of the economic value of the homosexual and the victimization of homosexuals at the hands of North American police officers. He noted, “it is a happy field for the law to work in because it could state it was working to keep the community morally clean.”

Of note were three city detectives who sat quietly three rows from the front. During the discussion session when any members of the vice-squad present were invited to comment, they did not move, and left soon after.

“Calgary lawyer, Max Wolfe, also sat on the stage during the session and took the stand after Call. He said there were not too many instances of homosexuality in Calgary. ‘You can draw your own conclusions, it could be the police are shutting their eyes to it or the homosexuals are being reasonable circumspect, about their activities, or both.'”