Tag Archives: William Bridel

The YYCGayHistory Collection Launches

Posted on August 29, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 6 comments

It is with delight, wonderment, and gratitude that we announce the launch of the Calgary Gay History Project Collection at the University of Calgary Archives.

*Image by Andy Nichols, 2024, University of Calgary Archives Photographs, Libraries and Cultural Resources.*

This now publicly accessible collection consists of published material, photographs, audiovisual material, ephemera, and other material related to the Calgary Gay History Project. This includes magazines, business directories and informational brochures, material from sporting events such as Western Cup, Outgames, and gay rodeos, show logs and audio recordings of radio shows, material from theatrical events such as Fairy Tales Film Festival and Third Street Theatre performances, as well as other 2SLGBTQ+ issues and concerns.

*Dr. William Bridel, Archivist Kim Geraldi, and the Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen exploring the collection. Image by Andy Nichols, 2024.*

The collection has been gathered from many community organizations and donors, including: Calgary Outlink, Calgary Pride, Kevin Allen, Stevie Lee Anderson, Jonathan Brower, Kelly Ernst, Matt Gillespie, Richard Gregory, Robert Lawrence, Terry MacKenzie and Kenneth Peach, Neil McMullen, Nancy Miller, Judy Moore, Pam Rocker, Gene Rodman, Joey Sayer, Michael Wright, and several anonymous donors.

*Pride Flag with historic buttons donated by Richard Gregory. Image by Andy Nichols, 2024.*

We thank all the donors to the collection who entrusted us with their materials over the past decade. We are grateful to Dr. William Bridel, a professor at the U of C (and queer historian himself) who facilitated the transfer of materials from Kevin Allen’s overloaded condo to the University. Finally, we thank archivist Kim Geraldi, who handled our collection so enthusiastically and tenderly.

*William, Kevin and Kim looking at early Fairy Tales Film Festival Posters. Image by Andy Nichols, 2024.*

A launch party for the Calgary Gay History Project collection is tentatively being planned for October. Our Past Matters—now future generations of researchers can explore queer Calgary’s storied past!

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history, Press Release

Tagged bisexual, Calgary, Calgary Gay History Project Collection, gay, Gay history, Kevin Allen, Kim Geraldi, lesbian, queer, transgender, University of Calgary, University of Calgary Archives, William Bridel

It Was a Place to Meet People Like Me: Sport & YYC LGBTQ+ History

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

{Free public lecture at the University of Calgary on December 2nd at 7 PM, hosted by the Calgary Institute for the Humanities—see their press release below. – Kevin}

Please join us for a talk by Calgary Institute for the Humanities 2020-21 Resident Fellow William Bridel

“Our history is about the stories, lives, experiences, and thoughts of individuals who built their lives around their newfound and often hard-won identity. We cannot lose that”. Stephen Lock wrote those words in the October 1994 issue of Clue!, one of Calgary’s queer publications at the time. In 2018, LGBTQ+ historian Kevin Allen released Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary, noting that the project was “ultimately about memory, and recording these essential stories of our humanity.” In this talk I follow the lead of Lock and Allen, by using archival and interview materials to explore the place of sport in Calgary’s LGBTQ+ history, from the 1970s through to the early 2000s. From softball to volleyball, running to swimming, Apollo Friends in Sport, and the Gay Games, the retelling of these stories on their own and in conversation with one another, reveal that sport played a necessary but sometimes complicated role in individual empowerment, community-building, and the Pride movement.

Dr. William Bridel is Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. He specializes in sociocultural aspects of sport, physical activity, and the body. Current projects include investigations of LGBTQI2S+ inclusion in sport, as well as inclusion and safe sport policy. He is also interested in sport-related pain and injury, with a recent focus on athletes’ experiences of sport-related concussion.

This event will be simultaneously hosted in a live venue (University of Calgary, Taylor Institute Forum) and online on Zoom. All registrants will receive event details one week before the event and may decide to attend in either setting.

In-person attendees are required to follow all UCalgary COVID-19 event requirements: see event for details.

{KA}

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)