Oral History with Jeanne Healy, Lois Stuart, and Jackie, 1985

Oral History with Jeanne Healy, Lois Stuart, and Jackie, 1985

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.

Lesbians Making History Collective

1985

Lesbians Making History Collective

LGBTQ Digital Oral History Collaboratory

The CLGA does not hold copyright

oral history

1950s to 1970s, 1985