Newspaper Clipping: "Sex-Change Shock for Dad! 2 Sons Turn Into Daughters"
transgender history
Clipping of a newspaper article profiling a family with two transsexual daughters.
1988-06-07
pdf
Clippings
F0021-01-097_03_OCR
Oral History with Lezlie Lee Kam, PT 1 (27 April, 2017)
dyke; lesbian; black power; Carib; Callaloo; world majority; activism; LOOT; Lesbian Organization of Toronto; Carnaval; Mas; migration; immigration; racism; Caribbean-Canadian; Trinidad; butch fem; lesbian separatism; Michigan Womyn's Music Festival; transphobia; coming out; Catholicism; York University; 1970s
This is the first of two oral histories with Lezlie Lee Kam, a 55+, gender-mysterious, world majority person and dyke; a Trini; a Carib; Brown; and a Callaloo-a mix of Chinese, Carib, Indian, Portuguese, and Venezuelan. She was born in Trinidad and left for Toronto in 1970. In this interview, Lezlie discusses her childhood in Trinidad with her 3 brothers with her working-class father and her more well-off mom; at age 11, when she was beginning her education in a convent school, her parents separated. Lezlie stayed with her father and 3 brothers, while her mother moved to Toronto in 1968. Lezlie was involved with Mas, as was her dad, who was a band leader; she's continued to be involved with Carnaval since. When Lezlie was 16, she moved to Toronto to be with her mother in Toronto, despite not wanting to leave. Discusses her attraction to girls from a young age, while also at the same time dating boys. Two of her brothers emigrated in 1976; she describes the debates she had with her mother around her mother's expectations that she do gendered labour in the household, while her brothers did nothing.
Lezlie was only one of four non-white kids in high school in 1970: she describes racism, being called a 'monkey' by the boys, and her (humorous) response, her accent, and her efforts to modulate it once in Canada. Lezlie came out, to herself, while she was at York U 1972-1976. She discusses radical student politics at York, and the expectation that all non-whites sit at the 'black table' in solidarity with black power. She learned about Cuba, South American indigenous issues, and Caribbean literature.
Discusses her first relationship with a woman, Sonia, a mixed race Trinidadian who attended Ryerson, and the physical passion that ensued after figuring it all out for the first time; they were together for 3 years, when they were caught kissing, and Sonia's family shipped her back to Trinidad.
Lezlie describes her activism with LOOT, the Lesbian Organization of Toronto (LOOT), in the late 1970s. She worked at the coffee house, on the phones, and wanted to be a person of colour for other lesbians who looked like her. Describes her work at LOOT and encountering butch-fem roles and lesbian separatism in the contemporary scene. Race and racism was not a topic of discussion among the white LOOT activists. Discusses the transphobia she encountered at the Michigan Womyn's Musical Festival, as well as how very few other women of color were there.
Night life, late 1970s: describes the 4 women of colour in the scene, who went to The Studio, a bar where gay men and lesbians mixed. They stood out, and became disco queens; they checked out the Camu (sp?) on Trinity, near Eastern. The Camu was a working class butch-fem bar, with tuxedos and ball gowns, the whole thing; they were the only people of colour. Discusses her own sense of gender then, and more recently. She was never butch or fem herself.
This interview continues in a second interview on June 16, 2017.
Brown, Elspeth;
Lee Kam, Lezlie
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
1970s-1980s
Lee Kam, Lezlie
Brown, Elspeth
CLGA
mp4
English
video
Gender Review, no. 10 (Feb 1981)
Coming out
Gender dysphoria clinics
Gender realignment surgery
Hormone therapy
Passing
<em>The first page of the scan is from issue 10. The remaining pages are probably from issue 6 or 7 (ca. 1979). Metadata in this record describes the contents of the attached PDF.</em><br /><br /><strong>Articles include:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>"Johns Hopkins clinic closes" </li>
<li>"Gender dysphoria clinics: shoulds and should nots"</li>
<li>"Do you pass?" by Susan C. Huxford</li>
<li>"Transsexuality" by Cheli Bo (Bo's awareness of gender identity since childhood and medical transition)</li>
<li>"Transsexualism: an interview" by T.T. ("23 year old male transsexual [i.e. transwoman]) (reprint from the <em>Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine </em>vol. 18, no. 1, 1971. Argues that hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery are appropriate medical interventions for transpeople)</li>
<li>"Transsexualism and the philosophy of healing" by John Money (reprints from the <em>Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine </em>vol. 18, no. 1, 1971. Argues that hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery are appropriate medical interventions for transpeople)</li>
<li>"Telling your secret" by Gillian Cox</li>
<li>"Book Review: <em>The Transsexual Empire: The Making of a She-Male </em>by Janice Raymond"</li>
</ul>
<br /><strong>Profiles of:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Joanna Clark (therapist)</li>
<li>Jude Patton (co-director of Renaissance Gender Identity services)</li>
<li>Charles Lee Reynolds (urologist)</li>
</ul>
<br />Also includes; editorial, FACT business, poetry, book review, events, resources, Bible column, news, advertisements
Raj, Rupert
FACT (Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals)
Feb 1981
Bo, Cheli
Cox, Gillian
Huxford, Susan
Money, John
T. T.
Rupert Raj; CLGA has licensing authority
PDF
English
newsletter
primarily Canada, some U.S. and other countries
Oral History Interview with Frederick Sproule (1983)
oral history, relationships, gay culture, Frederick Sproule, WWI, coming out, army, cruising, work, interior design, WWII, Toronto, drag, bars, gay liberation
In this oral history interview Frederick Sproule, 88 years old, discusses his life as a gay man in Toronto from the early twentieth century onwards. The interview begins with Sproule describing his coming out experience when he was 18 and lived in New York. He then narrates his life during World War I, his time in service, sexual experiences, relationships, cruising practices, and his attendance to gay parties. Other topics discussed in the interview include Sproule’s relation with his family, his social circle, his career as an interior designer, the changes in Toronto after WWII, drag practices of people he knew, his political stance, his rather pessimistic opinion about the gay liberation movement, the bar culture in the city, and his relationships with women when he was younger.
Foolscap Oral History Project
1983-08-16
John Grube, LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI), Zohar Freeman
CLGA
PDF, WAV
English
Sound, text
2016-034
Toronto 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s; New York 1910s, 1920s.
Closets are for Clothes
Coming Out
Transgender publishers
Round button with white text on purple background.
genderpress
Mirha-Soleil Ross
Xanthra Phillippa MacKay
genderpress
CLGA
1990s
genderpress
Mirha-Soleil Ross
Button
English
jpeg
2008-073
Toronto
Oral History Interview with Elgin Blair and Richard Brown (1983)
oral history, gay liberation, organisations, coming out, WWII, army, Unitarian, Christianity, gay bars, CHAT, The Body Politic, Older Gay Association, Gays and Lesbians against Disarmament (GLAD), depression, gay business, bars, baths, Lambda
In this oral history interview Elgin Blair and Richard Brown discuss their lives in Toronto as gay men. The interview begins with Elgin (58 years old) commenting on his coming out experience, his puritanical upbringing, his struggle to accept his homosexuality, time in service during the war, radical consciousness, and his work in the Unitarian gay caucus. Other topics include gay social structure in Toronto in the 1950s, gay bars, and Elgin’s involvement in the gay liberation movement and gay organizations such as CHAT, The Body Politic, Older Gay Association, and the Gays and Lesbians against Disarmament (GLAD), as well as in the CCF. Elgin also discusses how bars and pubs, and the people who met there, were instrumental in his coping with depression and sexual orientation. Richard Brown joins the conversation in the second half of the interview. He discusses the important role of gay business like bars and baths in the building of the gay community. He also comments on his personal life, growing up, coming out experience, and involvement in Lambda.
Foolscap Oral History Project
1983-03-20
John Grube, LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI), Zohar Freeman
CLGA
PDF, WAV
English
Sound, text
2016-034
Toronto 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
Interview with Del Newbigging
oral history, relationships, psychiatry
In this oral history interview, Del Newbigging, 50 years old, discusses his experience with psychiatric therapy, marriage counselling, and sex therapy, as well as his constant thought of committing suicide before coming to terms with his sexuality and breaking up his marriage. He recounts how seeing doctors and therapists was instrumental in accepting his homosexuality and in his coming out. The interview covers Del’s growing up gay in an oppressive Southern Ontario small town, his early homosexual experiences, his thirteen-years-long marriage, his job as an art high school teacher, his then five-year-long relationship, his lack of interest in the gay bar culture, and his good relationship with his son and daughter. Del also narrates his life as a gay father and his participation in associations such as Gay Fathers Organization and in the “gay society.” He claims to cherish the friendliness, openness, and warmth of the gay community.
Foolscap Oral History Project
1984-11-11
John Grube
CLGA
PDF, WAV
English
Sound, text
2016-034
Toronto 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
Interview with David Allandyle
oral history, relationships, bars
Oral history interview with a gay man, David, completed as part of the Foolscap project.
David, a 60 year old gay man at the time of the interview, discusses his long-term relationships and friendships in Toronto after World War II. He came out in the 1940s after being in service, while he studied Political Science and Economics at the University of Toronto. The interview covers David’s early life, family and friendships, being gay at work, the gay bar culture in Toronto, cruising in streets and parks in the city, occasional sexual encounters, police surveillance, his stance on psychiatric therapy, and his participation on demonstrations marching up Yonge street after the bath-house raids. David also discusses politics, defining himself as a conservative, his work experience in branch stores and in the field of interior design, as well as his rejection of the current gay culture.
Foolscap Oral History Project
1983-11-21
John Grube
CLGA
PDF, WAV
English
Sound, text
2016-034
Toronto 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
Interview with William (Bill) Atkinson (1983)
Navy, gay men, oral history
In this oral history interview, Bill Atkinson, a 67 years old gay man, describes the traumatic experience of being cashiered from the navy during a period of gay witch-hunts beginning in the late 1950s. Bill describes his life before, during and after being discharged from the Navy. He was born in England in 1916 to a middle class family, and discusses a difficult childhood. During his time in the Navy, Bill moves between Ontario and the Pacific Northwest, occasionally travelling to Detroit to meet gay men at Bar 1011. After his career in the Navy, Bill took up modelling and acting to support himself, as well as managing a restaurant for a period of time. Bill discussed his involvement in the gay political community in Toronto, working for George Hislop’s political campaign in the 1980s. Topic discussed include the experience of being gay in the Navy, sexual harassment, mental health, financial insecurity, and gay politics in Toronto.
Foolscap Oral History Project
1983-07-28
John Grube
CLGA
PDF, WAV
English
Sound, text
2016-034
Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit; 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
Interview with Gale Comin
lesbians
gay liberation
Interview with Gale Comin, a lesbian from Calgary who discusses her involvement with Calgary's gay political scene and how it changed over the last decade. She discusses the Imperial Court of the Chinook Arch and the Gay Information Resource Centre, as well as the position of lesbians within the gay movement and the importance of coming out.
1980-06-01
Cassette Tape
English