Tag Archives: Nancy Miller

Queer History Happenings @ YYCPRIDE

Posted on August 8, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

Here are two upcoming events at the Central Library of interest to queer history enthusiasts.

August 26th, 6:30-8:00 PM

Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge

The Canadian government investigated thousands of 2SLGBTQI+ employees, military personnel, and members of the RCMP during the Cold War, forcing many to resign – ruining lives and careers. In 2018, survivors fought back, and won a major class action lawsuit against the government of Canada.

*The “We Demand” demonstration on Parliament Hill, Aug.28, 1971. Photo source: The Arquives.*

Join Exhibition Curator Scott de Groot (Canadian Museum for Human Rights) in conversation with Purge Survivor Nancy Miller (one of the founders of Calgary Pride)! The talk launches the LGBT Purge exhibition at the Library in partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Calgary Pride.

Reserve your seat (free): here.

September 4th, 7:00-9:00 PM

The Calgary Institute for the Humanities 6th Annual LGBTQ2S+ Lecture: Ukraine, Russia, and the struggle for LGBTQ freedom.

*Photograph by Maria Komarova (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0)*

President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine may seem to have little relevance to LGBTQ politics. Yet Putin has declared that one aim of the February 2022 invasion is to prevent the spread to Russia and its neighbours of ‘Western’ forms of tolerance for LGBTQ ways of life. Anti-LGBTQ campaigns in Russia’s parliament and media amplify the anti-Western homophobia that builds popular support for the war against Ukrainian independence. Meanwhile, LGBTQ politics in Ukraine have evolved in ways few had imagined before 2022. How did Putin weaponize the Kremlin’s homophobia, and how have Ukrainian queers and queers across the region responded to this threat?

Dan Healey is an Emeritus Professor of Modern Russian History at the University of Oxford. He is a historian of sexualities and genders in modern Russia and the Soviet Union. His publications include Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi (Bloomsbury, 2017), and the first full-length history of homosexuality in Russia, Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent (University of Chicago Press, 2001). He continues to study the development of LGBTQ histories and communities in the non-Russian republics of the former Soviet Union.

This event is hosted by the Calgary Institute for the Humanities in partnership with UCalgary Alumni and with support from the Calgary Public Library.

Reserve your seat (free): here.

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged ArQuives, bisexual, Calgary Institute for the Humanities, Calgary Pride, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, CIH, Dan Healey, gay, Gay history, lesbian, LGBT Purge, Nancy Miller, queer, RCMP, Scott de Groot, transgender, We Demand

Pride Panel Announced

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

October is Queer History Month! The Calgary Gay History Project has organized a panel to explore Pride’s local history in collaboration with Calgary Pride and the Calgary Public Library. Join us Tuesday, October 24th, at 6 PM for Calgary Pride: A Catalyst for Social Change.

To speak with us, we have found four amazing people from different points in Calgary Pride’s history: Nancy Miller, James Demers, Dallas Barnes, and Sumit Munjal.

Nancy Miller joined the Military Police right out of high school. Following her release, Nancy testified to the Canadian Human Rights Commission during their 1983 cross-country hearings on discrimination against homosexuals in the military. Nancy was recognized in 2016 with the Chinook Fund LGBTQ Hero Award for her role in coordinating Calgary’s first Pride marches and other equity-seeking actions as a member of the Calgary Lesbian and Gay Political Action Guild (CLAGPAG) in the early 1990s.

James Demers has been involved in Calgary Pride in various capacities since 2007. James is a senior strategist and equity educator specializing in gender and sexual diversity (GSD) communities. He has worked as a local community builder ranging from trans health advocacy to public education to performing and producing queer art with Fake Mustache Drag and Reading with Royalty. Currently, James is championing non-violent protest intervention strategies to address increasing misinformation and charter violations against queer citizens.

Dallas Barnes is a queer feminist, activist, and writer who has worked with Calgary Pride, Interpride, Calgary Outlink, and the Treaty 7 Dyke and Trans March. Dallas joined the board of Calgary Pride in 2008 after it financially collapsed and was part of the leadership team which moved the parade from June to September and incorporated Pride as a non-profit society.

Sumit Munjal is the current Manager of Production and Programming at Calgary Pride. Sumit is an Indian-born Canadian with a diverse communications, marketing, retail development and design background. As an avid supporter of minority groups and diversity in the workplace, Sumit takes a unique inclusionary approach to design and marketing that challenges the status quo high art. He believes the narrative of Canadian diversity needs to shift from tokenism to shared beliefs of fundamental human rights and respect for lived experience.

The panel will be hosted by the Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen.

Seats are limited. Reserve your spot (free) for Calgary Pride: A Catalyst for Social Change today.

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged bisexual, Calgary, Calgary Pride, calgary public library, Chinook Fund, Dallas Barnes, gay, Gay history, James Demers, lesbian, Nancy Miller, queer, Sumit Munjal, transgender

2016 YYC Gay History Wrap

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

Today is our last post of 2016 as we devote our final energies of December to completing the Calgary Gay History book project. Here is a recap of the year.

The three most popular history posts in 2016 were:

#1 Ralph Klein’s Gay Rights Tempest

#2 Klippert back in the news 50 years later

#3 2016 Hero Awards – Nancy & Richard

We recently passed the 50,000 person odometer mark on the history website and have 966 followers, hundreds of whom have signed up for our weekly email.

Calgarian Everett Klippert, who was jailed in the 1960s for being gay, was back in the news in February thanks to the journalistic efforts of the Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has subsequently promised a posthumous pardon. The Calgary Gay History Project was then invited to write a feature on Klippert for the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Over 1000 Calgarians gathered in memory of the victims of the Orlando shooting at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.

The Calgary Police opened up their archives to the history project.

Calgary City Councillor Evan Woolley spearheaded the creation of a LGBTQ Legacy Committee to develop a plan for a history memorial that recognizes our contributions to the city.

We made historical reproductions of Pride buttons from previous decades that we gave away for free (and quickly ran out of) at Calgary’s Pride Festival.