The Stories
Article about queer storytelling by Clare Nobbs, published in Siren, a lesbian magazine
The stories that were performed during Queers in Your Ears’ long run are as different as the number of tellers that have been part of QIYE. Some are very personal stories, which centered the emotions of the tellers through words, enunciation, and movement; other stories were more ambiguous about their personal nature, leaving the audience wondering how much of themselves the teller had incorporated in their characters.
What all of the stories had in common was that they were queer, in some way or the other. Queer stories as in “always been here, always been queer” or stories that happened to a person that just so happened to be queer. In addition, a lot of their stories confronted queerphobia and intersecting structures of discrimination such as racism, ageism, ableism, and classism. There were stories about the teller’s own life, their experience with homophobia and fatphobia in school and university, as in Jeffrey Canton’s “The Spell”, or their experience as a recent immigrant to Canada, as leZlie lee kam talks about in her story about gender policing in washrooms.
Queers in the World: 25 Years of Queer in Your Ears
Some stories showed the teller’s own relation to systems of power as Tyler J. Sloane talks about the intersection of queer history with colonialism in “Melt”. Activism plays a role in a lot of their stories, from Jeffrey Canton’s first pride to Rico Rodriguez debating Evangelical Christians on homosexuality in the Bible.
There are stories about coming out and being out, about gay and queer life in Toronto and other places, like Tim McCaskell’s story about cruising in USSR’s Moscow. Some stories are explicit about the queerphobia that the teller experienced and internalized, about tensions with family and faith, but there are also stories about finding queer joy.
A lot of QIYE’s stories, though, are about belonging and visibility. One such story is Clare Nobbs’ story about girl guides and lesbian helpers. She talks about feeling at home and in community with the girl guides and lesbians and tells the history of lesbian helpers, giving an often overlooked part of queer history her own form of visibility.
No More S#&%!": Stories from the 1981 Bathhouse Raids
Marcus Peterson about the protests and personal consequences of the found-ins after the 1981 bathhouse raids.
Finally, QIYE aimed at preserving history by embodying seminal moments in Toronto's queer history. Personal stories based on real events were featured in “No More S#%&!” to offer deeper insight into 'Operation Soap' beyond the widely known facts.
Queers in Your Ears has been and will be providing a stage for queer orality and for keeping queer history alive, on a large scale as well as on a personal level, so that diverse queer voices can be heard and amplified.
Three Old Queers: Stories by Rico Rodriguez, Jeffrey Canton and Tim McCaskell
“Three Old Queers” was an online showcase, held on June 23, 2020, the first of a series of online events QIYE presented during the COVID pandemic, highlighting the stories of Rico Rodriguez, founder of QIYE, long-time member Jeffrey Canton, and educator and activist Tim McCaskell. It marked the collective’s 23rd anniversary and the group noted “In the 23 years since this innovative group of storytellers came together, there have been sweeping changes to the landscape of what it means to be queer but QIYE knows how important it is to preserve our experiences- good and bad - and to keep telling our stories”.
Jeffrey Canton at The Village at Black Creek
In 2025, the storytelling collective Queers in Your Ears (QIYE) held a performance at The Village at Black Creek, imagining the lives of queer people around Toronto in the 19th century. This video shows Jeffrey Canton's story about a man with a connection to Walt Whitman.