Tag Archives: QC Magazine

Be your own queer historian!

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

October is queer history month in Canada. We want to highlight some local and digital queer history resources that are public and accessible. Curious historians take note!

The new Calgary Gay History Project Collection at the University of Calgary launched during Pride and are already being used by researchers. We’re planning a launch party on October 22 at 5 PM, details TBA.

*Dr. William Bridel, Archivist Kim Geraldi, and the Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen exploring the collection.* *Image by Andy Nichols, 2024, University of Calgary Archives Photographs, Libraries and Cultural Resources.*

Our colleagues at the Edmonton Queer History Project launched an online digitized queer Alberta magazine collection. Of particular interest to Calgarians are Outlooks, Modern Pink, and A.G.L.P. They’ve kindly pledged to add more Calgary publications in the near future.

The Central Library has hard copies of queer publications Outlook, Clue! and QC Magazine in their fourth-floor Local History collection (as well as circulating copies of Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary).

Gay Calgary and Edmonton magazine has their back catalogue digitized and online (2003-2019).

*Cover August 2006 of GayCalgary Magazine*

Many significant queer archives are digitizing some of their holdings and creating online exhibits—notably the ArQuives in Toronto and the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria.

When you are travelling, seek out the queer histories of the places you are visiting. We just went to Spokane, Washington, last week and discovered Spokane Pride’s queer history project online—fascinating!

*1950’s newspaper advert from the Spokane Pride History Project*

Finally, when you have discovered something interesting, share it! You can use the social media tags @2SQHMCan and #2SQHMCan to link up with a national conversation about queer history.

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged 2SQHMC, A.G.L.P., ArQuives, bisexual, Calgary, Calgary Gay History Project Collection, CLUE Magazine, edmonton queer history project, gay, gay calgary magazine, Gay history, Kim Geraldi, lesbian, lgbtq, Modern Pink, Outlooks, Pride, QC Magazine, queer, Spokane Pride, transgender, Transgender Archives, William Bridel

Were you sporty in the last century?

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

{This week we are sharing a call for participants in a research project investigating local LGBTQ+ sports history.}

My name is William Bridel and I am an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. I am also a 2020-2021 Calgary Institute for the Humanities Fellow. I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

*Calgary’s CLUE Magazine and their cover story about the 1994 Gay Games*

I am conducting research to explore sport and physical activity in the lives of Calgarians who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or another LGBTQ+ identity and who participated in sport or physical activity during the time period of approximately 1960 to the early 2000s. My primary interest is in investigating the role sport and physical activity played in individuals’ lives but also in relation to community-building. My project seeks to build on the amazing work of Kevin Allen and the Calgary Gay History Project as well as research done with a former honours student at the University of Calgary, Connor MacDonald. The University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board has approved this research study (REB20-1526).

*A Calgary Softball Team from the 1960’s that was predominantly lesbian*

For this study, I am seeking individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ and who participated in sport or physical activity in Calgary at some point between the 1960s and early 2000s. Participants must also be English-speaking as I am unilingual. You will be asked to participate in an interview lasting around 60 to 90 minutes during which we will talk about your participation in sport—mainstream and/or LGBTQ+ specific (e.g., Apollo, Different Strokes, softball, bowling, etc.)—or physical activity (e.g., YMCA/YWCA). I would also like to discuss the meaning that sport and physical activity has had in your life.

*Calgary’s Different Strokes Swim Club at the Gay Games in Australia (2002)*

I will be conducting interviews virtually given the global pandemic; we can discuss different options such as Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, phone, etc. The interviews will be confidential, and steps will be taken to ensure your privacy throughout the process. If you choose, a pseudonym can be used in place of your name and team and organization names can be altered at your request. Interviews will be scheduled for a day/time that is most convenient for you.

If you are interested in participating in this study, please email me at william.bridel@ucalgary.ca with the following information: (1) name; (2) brief comment on your involvement in sport and/or physical activity during the 1960s to early 2000s; (3) your gender identity and sexuality; and (4) your pronouns. Once your message is received, I will contact you to discuss the study in further detail and to determine if you are still interested in volunteering to participate.

*Womyn’s Annual Golf Classic organizers, Sam & Bailey, organized Lesbian long weekends in Fernie, BC in the 90s*

I am also happy to answer any questions that you may have about the study. I can be reached at william.bridel@ucalgary.ca. Thanks so much for your time and consideration. —William (he/him)

Western Cup Flashback

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

There are only a handful of non-profits in Calgary’s gay community that are long storied. In 1981, four members of GIRC created an athletic social group and called it Apollo Friends in Sport. Volleyball was their inaugural sport. Apollo players issued a challenge to a similar group in Edmonton and the Western Cup was born.

Held every Easter weekend since, Western Cup is now 37 years old. In 2019, more than 1500 attendees and athletes will participate in sports tournaments of volleyball, bowling, curling, dodgeball, and hockey. The annual Western Cup Dance is a social calendar mainstay.

Recently, Apollo made a donation to the Calgary Gay History Project, and we gladly committed to working on preserving and collecting the history of this vital organization. Grassroots and volunteer-run since its inception, Apollo Friends in Sport is part of the connective tissue of Calgary’s contemporary LGBTQ2 community and was a harbinger of Pride in the city.

In 1995, I reported on Western Cup, for the inaugural issue of QC Magazine. I interviewed then Apollo President, Matthew Gillespie, and profiled some of the teams in competition. Winnipeg’s Golden Boys won the volleyball gold medal that year. (Calgary’s Fruit Loops came in third and occasionally showered spectators with their cereal namesake).

QC Magazine Photo Montage of Western Cup XIII – May 1995

The Western Cup dance in 1995 was held at the Victoria Park Community Hall with approximately 400 in attendance. I wrote: “The dance had something for everyone and too much for some. With only six beers remaining at 1:30 the place cleared out and those who had the stamina to party further sloshed over to Boystown: Metro.”

Oh dear, I guess I am middle aged now too…

{KA}