Oral History with Dorothy Knight, 2000
Files
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.
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 April 19, 2024, https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/items/show/587.
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