by Jess Wilton Threads of gender dysphoria unite the yellowing pages of adolescent diaries with the smudged print of typewritten letters in the Erica Rutherford fonds at the Prince Edward Island Public Archives. A trans artist who settled on Prince Edward Island (PEI), Rutherford passed away in 2008. She left behind numerous artworks that have been on display at the Venice Biennale as… Read more »
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 25th birthday in Saint John by attending a drag show hosted by Justin TooDeep (portrayed by Alex Saunders) and Saint John’s jewel of… Read more »
A Conversation with Sarah Worthman Sarah Worthman is executive director of the NL Queer Research Initiative (NLQRI), a social science research collective based out of Newfoundland and Labrador. In February 2025, she sat down to talk with series editor Jess Wilton about her work on queer history in the province. Jess Wilton: What type of work do you do at the NLQRI? Sarah… Read more »
by Meredith J Batt and Jess Wilton The queer history of Atlantic Canada is embedded in the region’s landscape and its people. As we guide you across the region exploring some queer nooks and crannies along the way, we will introduce you to the way queer pasts, presents, and futures collide and overlap. It’s spring and we begin in Northern… Read more »
by Jess Wilton Cradled by the Atlantic Ocean, the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Newfoundland and Labrador occupy a unique place in queer and Canadian history. “Queering Atlantic Canada: Stories, Histories, and Archives of Atlantic Canada” is an ActiveHistory.ca series guest edited by Jess Wilton. Over the next year, this series will offer an introduction to the work… Read more »
by Liam Devitt In 1991, the AIDS Coalition of Cape Breton was founded. Cape Breton Island, a small industrial region, was a far cry from the perceived metropolitan hotspots of the AIDS epidemic. It did not have the cosmopolitan queer nightlife of these cities and little activism that could be called “gay liberation” manifested in any visible way. In short,… Read more »
Margaret Ross Late one evening in January 1923, police descended on Millie Jones’s bawdy house at 757 Mercer Street in Windsor, Ontario. She was forty-eight years old, and ran the house with her husband, George.[1] The couple was Black, and they employed two other Black women. The entire group was arrested, including two clients who were being entertained at the… Read more »
By Sean Graham Black & Immigrant Communities in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley | RSS.comIn the 1930s, Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver was home to a vibrant community, which was slowly displaced through the construction of the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts. This is the settling for Junie, a historical fiction that explores the complexities of community, race, sexuality, substance abuse, and, most importantly,… Read more »
by Meredith J. Batt On Wednesday, July 1st, 1981, Dominion Day, a group of 250 gays and lesbians met in Centennial Park, in Moncton, New Brunswick. All attending as individuals, some hanging out near the fringes of the park in case any trouble kicked-off, while police officers looked on, surveying the crowd. This gay picnic was the cause of huge… Read more »
Walter T. Cassidy February 2021 marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the largest gay rights protests in Canadian history. On February 5, 1981, over 150 Toronto police officers raided four local bathhouses, known as gathering places for members of the gay community. Almost three hundred men were arrested that night, sparking a series of highly publicized rallies and mass… Read more »
