Tag Archives: University of Calgary

Buried Memory/Alarming Find in the U of C Archives

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Kevin Allen | 3 comments

Younger folk here at Calgary Outlink have asked me what the environment was like for queers in Calgary when I was their age. [For the record I am 42.] I often reply that there was an element of danger being out, going to clubs, and in associating in general. I remember nervously looking over my shoulder around the Beltline, and knew of people who had been bashed.

However, combing through the archives at the University of Calgary this morning, I found this poster in a 1992 file from the Gay and Lesbian Academics Students and Staff Society (GLASS) that gave me a jolt.

A U of C undergraduate student at the time, I have a distant memory of this event. On June 17, 1992 this exact poster was found tacked to the door of GLASS – the invitation to a gay bashing to be held at the same location at an upcoming rally for gay and lesbian rights.

In a press release the next day, Greg Lane, Co-chair for GLASS wrote, “Lesbians, gays and bisexuals live in a continual climate of potential violence. I am deeply concerned about these tools of oppression.” He noted that it was not the first time that GLASS had been targeted on campus.

In a move of solidarity, student politicians from the Students’ Unions of U of C, SAIT and Mount Royal College, all swiftly and publicly condemned the action of the unknown poster author, who to my knowledge was never caught, despite police involvement.

[Special thanks to Karen Buckley at the U of C Archives for research assistance.]

3 Comments

Posted in Gay history

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

Blue Jeans Day – 20 years later…

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

Going through my own files this past weekend, I discovered my own queer history with an article in The Gauntlet that came out 20 years ago this month. I was a student at the U. of C. and I remember the furor that erupted over this very clever and subversive activist move.

The idea was to wear denim if you supported gay rights. Blue Jeans Day started at U of C the year before, but the profile in its first year was low. For some reason 1992 was the year that its profile blew-up. Since the majority of students were wearing jeans on any given day, it created this interesting mind-bomb. Are they really supporting gay rights or just oblivious to the event?

Many queers and their allies were cloaked head to toe in denim (I myself remember having to borrow some jeans from a roommate). Many others were visibly pissed off. I remember a number of guys who had pulled out dress pants or khakis from the back of their closets, determined not to show support, despite wearing blue jeans most regular days of their life.

There was tension in the air – but it galvanized us. 20 years later it is a different world, thanks in part, to a little fashion-activism…

2 Comments

Posted in Gay history

Tagged blue jeans, Calgary, Gay history, human-rights, queer, The Gauntlet, University of Calgary

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.'”