A Beacon of Light: Hidden 2sLGBTQ+ Histories in Saint John’s The Lighthouse

by Meredith J. Batt

Atlantic Canadian port cities have some of the most colourful and vibrant queer spaces and stories. Saint John, New Brunswick is no exception. In 2020, the first summer of the pandemic, I celebrated my 25^th birthday in Saint John by attending a drag show hosted by Justin TooDeep (portrayed by Alex Saunders) and Saint John’s jewel of the sea, Dia Monde (portrayed by Shawn Craft). It was a distanced drag show, but after months of only participating in queer life through Zoom calls, I felt weepy being in a space of so much excitement, queer community, and joy. Five years later, I am now lucky to call Saint John my second home as I split my time between Fredericton and the great port city where my partner lives. 

Saint John has a vibrant contemporary queer scene. Saint John Pride has hosted many of the city’s 2sLGBTQ+ summer pride events for over twenty years. Chroma NB, which formed in 2020, offers everything from youth lunch clubs to hiking trips for queer and trans people of all ages. But the city has long remained overlooked by historians interested in queer life and culture. Particularly unknown, and at risk of being forgotten by younger generations, is the work of the activists who formed the Lesbian and Gay Organization – Saint John (LAGO-SJ). Active from 1983 to 1985, their monthly publication The Lighthouse offers valuable insight to early LGB activism. 

In New Brunswick, formal lesbian and gay organizations did not start before 1974 when the Gay Friends of Fredericton was formed by a small group of gay men. Before this, queer networks had taken the shape of private house parties, but these later decades proved to be a turning point as groups of men would begin meeting in bars and Chinese restaurants. Often they would also meet in plain sight in locations like the Admiral Beatty Hotel and the Delta Hotel in Saint John, as well as the River Room at the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel in Fredericton.¹ A series of photos held at the ArQuives were taken around Halloween 1966 and the winter of 1967 of young men in drag at the Admiral Beatty Hotel and the Royal Tavern on Germain Street. These photos offer a window into queer life and drag culture in Saint John well before our modern drag balls and shows.²

In 1979, Gay Friends of Fredericton evolved into Fredericton Lesbians and Gays (FLAG), but Saint John did not yet have its own organization. Many Saint Johners would attend the dances in Fredericton or in Moncton after Gays and Lesbians of Moncton (GLM) formed in 1982. As well, two lesbians, who have only been referred to as “Carol and Stella” in any historical accounts of this period held dances in their Saint John home.³ They offered one of the only private places for the community before May 1985 when the straight-owned, but gay-friendly, bar Jay Jay’s opened at Hilyard Place.

 Saint John’s first formal organization, LAGO-SJ, was formed in April 1983 by then-18-year old John Markidis, James Duplessis, and a small group of volunteers.⁴ LAGO-SJ was described as a “self-supporting, non-profit organization for the interests and wellbeing of the Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Gaymen of Saint John, N.B.”⁵ Prior to the establishment of LAGO-SJ, gay men in Saint John would search for companionship by cruising – seeking out a partner for casual sex. Like Markidis, the queer Canadian writer R.M. Vaughan, who spent his early life and undergrad days in the city, spoke of the cruising area around the old Free Saint John Public Library or the Carnegie Building (now the Saint John Arts Centre). This area across from the YMCA known as “The Block” could be frequented by gay men at any time. Vaughan described it as “accidental cruising” because there was no coding, instead cars with interested parties would slow down and park. Another spot frequented by cruisers was Rockwood Park where the many lakes and secluded areas provided men a place to spend time together away from the prying eyes of the more public straight beach.⁶

While those looking to find romantic or sexual connection found places around the city to meet, community organizers at LAGO-SJ established a monthly newsletter, The Lighthouse, to share supports and information within the community. The first issue in November was a one-paged, typewritten sheet that announced the board for 1983. It noted the social events for December, but the newsletter was unnamed until April 1984 when the logo, featuring a lighthouse encircled by a downward triangle, appeared atop the issue. Thus, The Lighthouse was born. Just as beacons of light protect sailors from crashing into the rocky shoreline, this lighthouse was a refuge and a connection point in the Port City for lesbian and gay readers. They offered important evidence of lesbian and gay life in the city as well as the challenges early activists faced when trying to start an organization during a time when the AIDS Crisis was just beginning and the conservative, working class city of Saint John was going through a renaissance with revitalization of Uptown.

The Lighthouse was in circulation from November 1983 (eight months after the organization began) until its final issue three years later in November 1985. Unfortunately, some issues have not survived or have yet to be donated to archives; however, there are 19 known issues still in existence which covered news concerning the community, advertised meet ups and dances, and include information on help lines and other avenues of support crucial to lesbian and gay life in the 1980s. For the first year, the newsletter was available to “adherents” of LAGO-SJ free of charge, but there was a $5.00 membership.⁷ A year later, the issue of November 1984, LAGO SJ boasted a membership of 46 people.

The Lighthouse was maintained by a small group, but the main contributor was James Duplessis. A hairdresser by trade, he often wrote different articles under pseudonyms like “Rona Rubine” featuring articles on gay news from across North America. He also maintained the library, which made available brochures and public health information on AIDS as well as titles such as Sudden Death by lesbian writer Rita Mae Brown and seminal queer film studies book The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo.⁸ Under Duplessis’ guidance, issues listed the contact information for lesbian, gay and bi-sexual support groups in both Atlantic Canada and Maine. It notified members of dances held at the Union Hall on Tower Street (West Saint John) and where the Mr. Gay New Brunswick contest was held in both September of 1984 and ’85 with the categories of formal wear, casual wear, and swimsuit. A free hairstyle and $100 was awarded for the top prize.

The LAGO-SJ office was established on the 3^rd floor of 80 Prince William Street; due to the building being sold in November 1984, they relocated to 14 Horsfield street. It was out of this location that a gayline was established in the last few months of the organization. The members published only one report regarding the calls to the line, stating that on average there were 1,100 calls with only around 34 being serious inquiries. The majority were prank calls.

Throughout its short circulation, the editors of The Lighthouse were frank about inaction among their readers in both attending LAGO-SJ events and also in contributing pieces to the newsletter. The editor in the July 1984 issue wrote: “If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch.” Often, editors relied on contributions from other Atlantic regions to round out the issues and share news of events. Atlantic Canadian gay rights activist, Robin Metcalfe, who spent part of his youth in Saint John, was a frequent contributor. Markidis’ interview with historian Tom Warner offers various reasons besides lack of community support before the organization’s closure in November 1985. Markidis was really involved for the first year, but then started seeing someone in Fredericton and mainly attended the LAGO-SJ dances. They started to back away when there was infighting and disagreement from the members about if they should be purely social or also be more active politically. By 1986, most of the organizers were out of school or university and had resigned the small, somewhat disengaged LGB community in Saint John to what it was. Markidis states that within a three-month period, around ten organizers involved with LAGO-SJ moved on to bigger queer pastures such as Toronto or Halifax. 

Although The Lighthouse offers many insights into gay life and advocacy in the late-twentieth century, like many queer organizations from Atlantic Canada, the voices of gay men are at the forefront in both the records and historiography. Though an analysis of the issues show lesbian participation in the form of women’s dances and women who are listed as part of the executive, lesbians were infrequent contributors to The Lighthouse. So far, there are few records from the time period or oral histories that highlight the involvement of queer women in in-depth community organizing. Hopefully through continuing oral history projects, these gaps in knowledge will be addressed. 

Though LAGO-SJ may have ceased to be an active organization, advocacy work for the LGB community continued. Many Saint John activists worked throughout the 1980s and 1990s confronting different challenges such as advocating for provincial human rights legislation for sexual orientation and the first ordained same-sex marriage between James Crooks and Carl Trickey at Queen’s Square Centenary United Church in 1996. By 2003, Port City Rainbow Pride formed and established the first pride week in Saint John following remarks made in the House of Commons by Conservative MP for Saint John-Rothsay, Elise Wayne. Regarding the fight for marriage equality, Wayne stated that gay and lesbians should “go live together and shut up about it.”⁹ Wayne’s outburst stoked much anger and support from the queer community in Saint John. The first parade was held on 26 July 2003, ushering a new era of political anti-queer rhetoric that we are still seeing today.

Exploring copies of past activist newsletters offers an important window into past lesbian and gay activist challenges and successes, especially when there are few additional sources on LAGO-SJ’s existence or wider public knowledge. In the era before Instagram stories, Facebook events, or Discord, these organizational newsletters provided community members with safe places to be themselves, share resources, and find support. Initiatives like the helpline ensured people could seek help and know they were not alone and obtain sexual health information The Lighthouse shows what can be done to fight against the anti-queer and anti-trans violence that is currently on the rise. Such examples of community collaboration are needed in this time where  several provincial governments are trying to pass anti-trans bills.  

Meredith J. Batt is an archivist at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick as well as a co-founder and Queer History Research Archivist Advisor for the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick (QHINB). They have been accepted to the MA Archives and Records Management Programme at University College Dublin for September 2025. They are currently working on their second book exploring the 2SLGBTQ+ History of New Brunswick.

Further Reading:

The Critical Thinking Consortium, History Documentaries on Queer and Trans+ History: https://tc2.ca/resources/history-docs/queertrans-plus-history

Batt, Meredith J. Turning back the clock 40 years on 2SLGBTQ+ violence, Coop Media NB, Feb 25, 2025. 

Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick, Queer Histories Matter: Queering Social Studies in New Brunswick

Batt, Meredith, “We’re bringing picnic baskets, not water beds”: The 40th Anniversary of the Gay Picnic in Moncton, New Brunswick. Active History. August 5, 2021. 

Mackenzie, Kylie. The Struggle for Equality Exhibit at UNBSJ The Barren, 2022. 

1. Conor Falvey, Foregrounds: Mapping Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual History in Fredericton, 1969-1992 (master’s thesis, University of New Brunswick, 2015), 54.   ↩︎
2. These photos are not yet available in the Arquives catalogues online but can be accessed by contacting the Arquives for the James D. Brown photo albums with early drag photos from New Brunswick. c.1960s. Accession no. 2003-09,1https://arquives.ca/arquives/research/. ↩︎
3. Conor Falvey, Foregrounds: Mapping Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual History in Fredericton, 1969-1992 (master’s thesis, University of New Brunswick, 2015), 88. ↩︎
4. Tom Warner, Never Going Back Again: A History of Queer Activism in Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), pp. 170-171.  ↩︎
5. The Lighthouse, Vol.1 No. 3, April 1984. ↩︎
6. Notes from a conversation with R.M. Vaughan, April 18^th 2020.  ↩︎
7. The Lighthouse, Vol. 1 No. 3, April 1984 ↩︎
8. The Lighthouse, Vol.1 No.5 June 1984 & Vol.1 No.6 July 1984 ↩︎
9. “Saint John’s First Pride Week Sends Signal”, Telegraph Journal, July 22^nd 2003  ↩︎