245
10
3176
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
LGBTQ+ Oral Histories
Description
An account of the resource
A selection of oral histories from The ArQuives collections.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970-2005
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Cassette tapes, digital video
Language
A language of the resource
English
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
Moving Image
A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation.
URL
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/389148896" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Anthony Mohamed
Description
An account of the resource
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/389148896" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/389401201" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Anthony Mohamed is an activist in Toronto, and was an integral part of groups such as Zami, Lesbian and Gay Youth of Toronto and Khush. As an Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ leader, Mohamed describes the search for community when coming of age in the late 70s and 80s. Highlighting untold stories, he discusses the linguistic and cultural barriers in HIV/AIDS activism from which ASAAP, along with other organizations for queer and trans communities of colour sprung forth. Mohamed explores the reconciliation of race, spirituality and sexuality, including the distinction between personal faith and organized religious spaces. Interview conducted on September 10th and November 1st 2019 by Jennifer Aja Fernandes.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1-Nov-2019
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP4
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Oral history with Anthony Mohamed (1 November 2019)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
LGBTQ+ Oral Histories
Caribbean-Canadian
oral history
queer history
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/f2a401165276c86435c6d2814a3ed711.pdf
5ad93481c200e8fc2c17f0d18cdeca08
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collections
Description
An account of the resource
The Lesbians Making History (LMH) collective came together in the mid-1980s and was inspired by oral history projects of gay lives coming out of Buffalo, Boston and San Francisco. The collective interviewed 9 women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Collective members included:
Rachel Epstein
Maureen FitzGerald
Amy Gottlieb
Didi Khayatt
Mary Louise Noble
Lorie Rotenberg
Some of the women interviewed also appeared in Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s NFB-funded documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The 1992 film was out of print for many years until 2014, when the National Film Board released it in digital format.
Although the organizers of Lesbians Making History were committed to keeping the project a community-based initiative, and not one rooted in academic pursuit, they allowed Elise Chenier, now a professor at Simon Fraser University, to use the transcripts of the interviews for her MA thesis. Chenier’s work on lesbian bar culture in the 1950s and 60s is widely taught in Canadian universities. Interview material was also used by Cameron Duder and by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile.
In 2014 the original audio tapes were given to the CLGA via the LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory, a multi-institutional research project led by University of Toronto professor Elspeth Brown and funded by a 5-year SSRHC Insight grant.
Embedded at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Collaboratory members digitized LMH materials and created new verbatim transcriptions. Original LHM collective members assisted with editing transcripts, identifying key words and writing abstracts for each oral history interview.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-1987, 2000
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985-1987
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA holds non-exclusive rights
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Maureen Fitzgerald; LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007345&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007343&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007342&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Betty Burrows & Shirley Shea, 1987
Description
An account of the resource
Betty was born on a farm just outside in Sydney, Australia and Shirley was born in Sudbury in 1924. The two meet in Toronto in the 1960s, where they were apart of the lesbian bar scene that gravitated around The Continental. At the time of the interview in 1985, both Shirley and Betty are retired. The interview covers their early lives in Australia and Sudbury, Ontario; their coming-out experiences and various men and women they have dated; Betty’s travels around the world and Shirley’s work for CBC; their first encounter; and life in the lesbian bar scene in Toronto.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA does not hold copyright.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
oral history
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1987
bars
coming out
lesbian
lesbian relationships
oral history
Sudbury
The Continental
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/875772123ae7d3cb947e3e50d0e0ba7d.pdf
a4adcd897ae08aad90c668d934554132
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collections
Description
An account of the resource
The Lesbians Making History (LMH) collective came together in the mid-1980s and was inspired by oral history projects of gay lives coming out of Buffalo, Boston and San Francisco. The collective interviewed 9 women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Collective members included:
Rachel Epstein
Maureen FitzGerald
Amy Gottlieb
Didi Khayatt
Mary Louise Noble
Lorie Rotenberg
Some of the women interviewed also appeared in Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s NFB-funded documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The 1992 film was out of print for many years until 2014, when the National Film Board released it in digital format.
Although the organizers of Lesbians Making History were committed to keeping the project a community-based initiative, and not one rooted in academic pursuit, they allowed Elise Chenier, now a professor at Simon Fraser University, to use the transcripts of the interviews for her MA thesis. Chenier’s work on lesbian bar culture in the 1950s and 60s is widely taught in Canadian universities. Interview material was also used by Cameron Duder and by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile.
In 2014 the original audio tapes were given to the CLGA via the LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory, a multi-institutional research project led by University of Toronto professor Elspeth Brown and funded by a 5-year SSRHC Insight grant.
Embedded at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Collaboratory members digitized LMH materials and created new verbatim transcriptions. Original LHM collective members assisted with editing transcripts, identifying key words and writing abstracts for each oral history interview.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-1987, 2000
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985-1987
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA holds non-exclusive rights
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Maureen Fitzgerald; LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275923891&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275925519&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275925605&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275925660&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275925927&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275925978&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Cheryl Freeman, 1987
Description
An account of the resource
Cheryl Freeman was born in 1949, adopted by a working class Baptist family. She grew up in Toronto. Her biological mother was Jewish but she was not informed until she was in her 30s. Her father was an alcoholic. Her mother was very controlling but often very supportive. Her mother committed her to a mental hospital at 16 years of age, because she was rebellious. Between 16 and 18 she was in and out of mental hospitals but there she discovered that her sexual attraction to girls was “normal” and she was introduced to lesbian culture through other lesbians in those institutions. When she was out of those institutions, she started going to gay and lesbian bars. She made money by dealing drugs, robbery and protecting prostitutes. She was married to a gay man and had a daughter intentionally in 1971. Between the ages of 19 and 21, she lived with a woman lover who had a child. At that time she switched from butch to femme. After 21, she lived in several co-op houses and went on welfare. Post-1969, she participated in several gay rights organizations, including CHAT and LOOT. She speaks of encountering prejudice from lesbian-feminists around butch/femme roles. She lived off and on with at least three women lovers. She experienced abuse from a sister and one woman lover.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective, LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA does not hold copyright
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
oral history
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1987
abuse
butch/femme
incarceration
lesbian
lesbian mothers
mental health
poverty
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/836b758fe29db9b114ffe183be87f3d7.pdf
41ae86c437b7a77ab47a87af67bdb719
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/5593c04a8f2d0b431b05a4d21e775486.pdf
7741aa41077eac264161b9cbac51adf1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collections
Description
An account of the resource
The Lesbians Making History (LMH) collective came together in the mid-1980s and was inspired by oral history projects of gay lives coming out of Buffalo, Boston and San Francisco. The collective interviewed 9 women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Collective members included:
Rachel Epstein
Maureen FitzGerald
Amy Gottlieb
Didi Khayatt
Mary Louise Noble
Lorie Rotenberg
Some of the women interviewed also appeared in Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s NFB-funded documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The 1992 film was out of print for many years until 2014, when the National Film Board released it in digital format.
Although the organizers of Lesbians Making History were committed to keeping the project a community-based initiative, and not one rooted in academic pursuit, they allowed Elise Chenier, now a professor at Simon Fraser University, to use the transcripts of the interviews for her MA thesis. Chenier’s work on lesbian bar culture in the 1950s and 60s is widely taught in Canadian universities. Interview material was also used by Cameron Duder and by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile.
In 2014 the original audio tapes were given to the CLGA via the LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory, a multi-institutional research project led by University of Toronto professor Elspeth Brown and funded by a 5-year SSRHC Insight grant.
Embedded at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Collaboratory members digitized LMH materials and created new verbatim transcriptions. Original LHM collective members assisted with editing transcripts, identifying key words and writing abstracts for each oral history interview.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-1987, 2000
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985-1987
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA holds non-exclusive rights
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Maureen Fitzgerald; LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Dorothy Knight, 2000
Description
An account of the resource
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
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2000
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective, LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The CLGA does not hold copyright
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1930s–1970s, Toronto
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/1214a1fc0de00f7849fccc8d9471e2d0.pdf
fe3c21b679e3da24673270cc1ec78cb1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collections
Description
An account of the resource
The Lesbians Making History (LMH) collective came together in the mid-1980s and was inspired by oral history projects of gay lives coming out of Buffalo, Boston and San Francisco. The collective interviewed 9 women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Collective members included:
Rachel Epstein
Maureen FitzGerald
Amy Gottlieb
Didi Khayatt
Mary Louise Noble
Lorie Rotenberg
Some of the women interviewed also appeared in Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s NFB-funded documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The 1992 film was out of print for many years until 2014, when the National Film Board released it in digital format.
Although the organizers of Lesbians Making History were committed to keeping the project a community-based initiative, and not one rooted in academic pursuit, they allowed Elise Chenier, now a professor at Simon Fraser University, to use the transcripts of the interviews for her MA thesis. Chenier’s work on lesbian bar culture in the 1950s and 60s is widely taught in Canadian universities. Interview material was also used by Cameron Duder and by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile.
In 2014 the original audio tapes were given to the CLGA via the LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory, a multi-institutional research project led by University of Toronto professor Elspeth Brown and funded by a 5-year SSRHC Insight grant.
Embedded at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Collaboratory members digitized LMH materials and created new verbatim transcriptions. Original LHM collective members assisted with editing transcripts, identifying key words and writing abstracts for each oral history interview.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-1987, 2000
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985-1987
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA holds non-exclusive rights
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Maureen Fitzgerald; LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007333&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007332&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007331&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Eve Zaremba, 1986
Description
An account of the resource
Eve Zaremba was born in Poland in 1930. The Second World War displaced her family to Scotland and England, where she was sent to a boarding school in Reading until the age of 15. Zaremba leaves school in 1945 and moves with her family to Southern Ontario. When she comes to Toronto in 1954, Zaremba becomes an advertising and marketing executive, and later becomes an important figure in the Women’s Movement. The interview concerns Eve’s coming out process from the 1960s, charting her lesbian relationships through the Women’s Movement in Toronto. At the time of the interview, Zaremba had became a noted writer. Her best-known works are The Privilege of Sex and The Helen Karemos Detective Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The CLGA does not own copyright
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
oral history
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1986
coming out
feminism
lesbian
lesbian writers
oral history
women's movement
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
LGBTQ+ Oral Histories
Description
An account of the resource
A selection of oral histories from The ArQuives collections.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970-2005
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Cassette tapes, digital video
Language
A language of the resource
English
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/209407154" frameborder="0" width="640" height="360"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/209407154">George Hislop Interview (1991)</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/clgarchives">Canadian Lesbian + Gay Archives</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with George Hislop (1991)
Description
An account of the resource
Toronto-based gay liberation activist George Hislop, interviewed by historian David Churchill in 1991. Interview is focused on mid-century gay life in Toronto.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Churchill, David;
Hislop, George
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940s-1970s
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Churchill, David
McKinney, Cait
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Churchill, David
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
mp4
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Video
Alfred Kinsey
David Churchill
gay history
gay liberation
gay Toronto
George Hislop
oral history
sex education
Toronto
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/e6a610574e84958ca697f05e74cd1372.pdf
a0434bcaa0b562223877f3709d74cf33
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collections
Description
An account of the resource
The Lesbians Making History (LMH) collective came together in the mid-1980s and was inspired by oral history projects of gay lives coming out of Buffalo, Boston and San Francisco. The collective interviewed 9 women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Collective members included:
Rachel Epstein
Maureen FitzGerald
Amy Gottlieb
Didi Khayatt
Mary Louise Noble
Lorie Rotenberg
Some of the women interviewed also appeared in Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s NFB-funded documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The 1992 film was out of print for many years until 2014, when the National Film Board released it in digital format.
Although the organizers of Lesbians Making History were committed to keeping the project a community-based initiative, and not one rooted in academic pursuit, they allowed Elise Chenier, now a professor at Simon Fraser University, to use the transcripts of the interviews for her MA thesis. Chenier’s work on lesbian bar culture in the 1950s and 60s is widely taught in Canadian universities. Interview material was also used by Cameron Duder and by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile.
In 2014 the original audio tapes were given to the CLGA via the LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory, a multi-institutional research project led by University of Toronto professor Elspeth Brown and funded by a 5-year SSRHC Insight grant.
Embedded at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Collaboratory members digitized LMH materials and created new verbatim transcriptions. Original LHM collective members assisted with editing transcripts, identifying key words and writing abstracts for each oral history interview.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-1987, 2000
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985-1987
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA holds non-exclusive rights
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Maureen Fitzgerald; LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007330&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007329&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Jeanne Healy, 1985
Description
An account of the resource
Jeanne is an activist and retired bookkeeper and secretary. She was born in 1924, the youngest and only girl of five siblings and grew up and lived for a major part of her life in Toronto. At the time of the interview she was back living with her ex-lover, Lois Stewart and Lois’s husband. The interview covers Jeanne’s lesbian relationships from 1948 up to the time of the interview. She discusses the bar scene in Toronto and Detroit as well as house parties and friendships with other lesbians in Toronto. Topics discussed include dealing with homophobia from the 40’s to the present as well as thoughts on the intersection of class, gender and sex.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The CLGA does not own the copyright
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
oral history
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985
1940s
bars
class
homophobia
lesbian
oral history
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/ad2b0724a8bfceffa061cf7f98e6c51b.pdf
d82841795430ed4c65ab767b2bd7ff30
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collections
Description
An account of the resource
The Lesbians Making History (LMH) collective came together in the mid-1980s and was inspired by oral history projects of gay lives coming out of Buffalo, Boston and San Francisco. The collective interviewed 9 women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Collective members included:
Rachel Epstein
Maureen FitzGerald
Amy Gottlieb
Didi Khayatt
Mary Louise Noble
Lorie Rotenberg
Some of the women interviewed also appeared in Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s NFB-funded documentary Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The 1992 film was out of print for many years until 2014, when the National Film Board released it in digital format.
Although the organizers of Lesbians Making History were committed to keeping the project a community-based initiative, and not one rooted in academic pursuit, they allowed Elise Chenier, now a professor at Simon Fraser University, to use the transcripts of the interviews for her MA thesis. Chenier’s work on lesbian bar culture in the 1950s and 60s is widely taught in Canadian universities. Interview material was also used by Cameron Duder and by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile.
In 2014 the original audio tapes were given to the CLGA via the LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory, a multi-institutional research project led by University of Toronto professor Elspeth Brown and funded by a 5-year SSRHC Insight grant.
Embedded at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Collaboratory members digitized LMH materials and created new verbatim transcriptions. Original LHM collective members assisted with editing transcripts, identifying key words and writing abstracts for each oral history interview.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-1987, 2000
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985-1987
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA holds non-exclusive rights
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Maureen Fitzgerald; LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007325&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007324&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239007323&color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Jeanne Healy, Lois Stuart, and Jackie, 1985
Description
An account of the resource
This interview begins as a conversation between Lois, a retired schoolteacher and activist in Southern Ontario, and Jeanne, a retired secretarial worker and activist. Partway through the interview, Jackie enters and dominates much of the discussion. Jackie was born in 1934 in Sudbury, Ontario to a large French and Native family. As a teenager, she ran away to Toronto multiple times. Following a marriage at 16, she moved to Toronto for a number of years, where she became part of the lesbian bar scene at The Continental Hotel. Jackie would have been considered a downtowner and a rounder, having spent time in and out of the Don Jail throughout her life. The majority of the interview concerns her coming out process as a butch; her work as a pickpocket and later a heroin dealer; her experiences of violence in the Lesbian bar scene; as well as her relationships with women, one of which was with an aspiring Hollywood starlet. The interview is framed by a larger conversation about police harassment, books published in the fifties featuring gay and lesbian characters, and Jeanne and Lois’ involvement in the Women’s Movement.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lesbians Making History Collective
LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The CLGA does not hold copyright
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
oral history
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1950s to 1970s, 1985
bars
butch/femme
incarceration
lesbian
lesbian relationships
oral history
police brutality
Sudbury
The Continental
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/865221c1af9eb78788508ff99713dbc5.png
6d3f47f652f9c1808240a65dec0e7ab9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Not a Place on the Map: The Desh Pardesh Project
Subject
The topic of the resource
diaspora, artists, South Asian, people of colour, festivals, identity, racism
Description
An account of the resource
Toronto’s Desh Pardesh festival (1988–2001) was a multidisciplinary arts festival that showcased underrepresented and marginalized voices within the South Asian diaspora. These oral history interviews with artists and organizers involved in the festival were created by the South Asian Visual Arts Centre in 2016.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
South Asian Visual Arts Centre
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
South Asian Visual Arts Centre
Relation
A related resource
CLGA holds additional records related to Desh Pardesh and Khush
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF, WAV
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Add CLGA accession # once donated
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1988–2001, Toronto, South Asia
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
LGBTQ Oral HIstory Digital Collaboratory, SAVAC
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
URL
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/325282645&color=%23ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false&show_user=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="20"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Leila Sujir (2014)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Identity Politics, Desh Pardesh, Oral History, Immigration, India Hearts Beat, Leile Sujir, arts festival, Dreams of a Night Cleaner, Quebec
Description
An account of the resource
Leila Sujir is an artist that first worked at Desh Pardesh in the late 1980s. Her work India Hearts Beat screened in Toronto, and she was invited to discuss it. She felt that Desh was a space of both validation and contention. She argues it gave emerging artists a space to present their work and gave a sense of importance to it, which was difficult in the racialized landscape of 1980s Toronto. Sujir also cites that the cultural context of Desh presented an overarching identity politics that concerned the population of Toronto. She felt that there was contention between groups, there was a competition of oppression and the rise of an “identity minefield”. Sujir also discusses her work Dreams of a Night Cleaner to conceptualize how physicality and space was a major component of her artistic work. She concludes the interview by discussing the erasure of oppression in her home province, Quebec and discusses briefly a new project in the UK.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-11-28
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anna Malla
LGBTQ Oral History DIgital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF, WAV
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound, Text
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
||||osm
1980s Toronto, 2000s Quebec
Desh Pardesh
diaspora
Dreams of the Night Cleaners
Identity politics
immigration
memory
oral history
racism
Rosemary Brown
SAVAC
South Asian
South Asian Visual Arts Centre
Tony Morrison
Toronto
-
https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/files/original/e3f3ec7042499edba31c38e020b3b268.png
3924e96eae46fc5131c7161bbe97c8c7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
LGBTQ+ Oral Histories
Description
An account of the resource
A selection of oral histories from The ArQuives collections.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970-2005
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Cassette tapes, digital video
Language
A language of the resource
English
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (Elspeth Brown, PI)
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
Hyperlink
A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Brown, Elspeth
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Lee Kam, Lezlie
Location
The location of the interview
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
moving image
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
1 hr 20 minutes (PT 1)
URL
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/253802550" frameborder="0" width="640" height="360"></iframe>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History with Lezlie Lee Kam, PT 1 (27 April, 2017)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brown, Elspeth;
Lee Kam, Lezlie
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970s-1980s
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lee Kam, Lezlie
Brown, Elspeth
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
CLGA
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
mp4
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
video
Subject
The topic of the resource
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
Description
An account of the resource
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.
butch fem
Callaloo
Carib
Caribbean
Carnaval
coming out
dyke
immigration
lesbian
Lesbian Organization of Toronto
lesbian separatism
LOOT
Mas
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
migration
oral history
racism
Toronto
transphobia
Trinidad
York University