The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions

Oral History with Dorothy Knight, 2000

Files

Knight, Dorothy Oral History Transcript Feb 2000.pdf
Knight, Dorothy Oral History Transcript May 2000.pdf

Dublin Core

Title

Oral History with Dorothy Knight, 2000

Description

This series of two interviews with Dorothy Knight accounts for one linear life story, but split into two parts because of a recording error during the first interview. The second interview done on May 24, 2000, attempts to replace a part of Knight’s narrative (approx. 1950–60) accidently erased from the first tapes.

Dorothy Knight talks about coming of age in Toronto in the 1930s and 40s, falling in love for the first time at 19, and training to become a nurse. Knight discusses early sexual experiences with several women, and her subsequent engagement to a man in 1959, called off before their wedding. Knight describes feeling isolated from lesbian community until a trip to New York in the late 1960s when she visits a lesbian bar, sees Butch/Femme aesthetics for the first time, and finds that they are not a fit for her. Returning to Toronto, she is nonetheless inspired to look up the local homophile association where she meets new friends who introduce her to the local bar scene. At the age of 42, at the Blue Jay, she meets B.L., who would become her most significant relationship. Later in the 1970s and 80s, Knight preferred to socialize with other lesbians at house parties. Working as a nurse until the early 1970s, Knight eventually transitioned into working as an “association consultant,” and then started her own business.

Creator

Lesbians Making History Collective

Date

2000

Contributor

Lesbians Making History Collective, LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory

Rights

The CLGA does not hold copyright

Format

PDF

Type

Oral history

Coverage

1930s–1970s, Toronto

Citation

Lesbians Making History Collective, “Oral History with Dorothy Knight, 2000,” The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions, accessed March 28, 2024, https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/items/show/587.