The Calgary Gay History Project recently contributed historic gay media to our colleagues in Edmonton for digitization. Heroically, they have already digitized hundreds of magazines! You can find the collection: here. Most of this online collection focuses on Edmonton, but several publications have a provincial reach. We contributed issues of Modern Pink, Alberta Gay and Lesbian Press (AGLP), and Outlooks Magazine, which were all published in Calgary but distributed province-wide. Outlooks Magazine, September 1998 Issue with GLCSA’s OK Campaign The close connection between our two cities ..read more

Calgary’s first gay bar, Club Carousel, has inspired many contemporary events. The latest will be a dance party thrown by the pop-up collective Pansy Club on May 10th. Pansy Club Poster from Instagram The Pansy Club, a significant addition to our community, was established in 2021 as a bi-monthly 2SLGBTQ+ music night at Kaffeeklatsch, a former Beltline cafe at 1205 1 St. SW—coincidentally beside the original Club Carousel at 1207 1 St. Spearheaded by Cal Gibbens, the name Pansy Club was inspired by one of the stories he read in Our Past Matters, a testament to our rich history.  I’m ..read more

We are thrilled to be attending the first National Queer and Trans+ Community History Conference in Edmonton this weekend. The conference is set to take place at MacEwan University, where researchers from all over the country will be coming together for a unique queer history immersion experience. The conference “is designed to bring together 2SLGBTQ+ community members, non-profit organizations, heritage professionals, academics, historians, and emerging scholars who have an interest in documenting, preserving, and celebrating diverse and intersectional queer and trans+ histories in ..read more

April 27th is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. If you buy a book at your favourite indie bookshop this Saturday, you can enter a contest to win a $1000 gift certificate. We love these stores and thank our hometown favourites: Pages, Shelf Life, and Owl’s Nest, for selling hundreds of copies of our imprint ASPublishing’s award-winning books: Our Past Matters and What Narcissus Saw. Browsing the bookshelves, talking to informed staff, and bumping into people you know are good reasons to shop in indie bookstores. {Plus: social snacking is good for ..read more

The Backlot, a historic Calgary gay bar, will be moving (again). Founded in 1976, its current and third incarnation at 10th Avenue and 1st Street was established in 1996. However, the City has approved this site for redevelopment despite organized resistance last year called “Save Our Backlot.” Interestingly, the developer is keen to acknowledge the history of the site—both its contemporary importance to the queer community as well as its location in Calgary’s second Chinatown from 1901-1910. The queer history commemoration proposal (Brief) includes a commissioned mural at the site of the Back ..read more

In April, wear blue jeans to support gay rights—so says history! One of our earliest Calgary Gay History Posts was about Blue Jeans Day at the University of Calgary in the early 1990s. However, we recently discovered details about how the event echoed a gay liberation initiative first begun at Rutgers University by the groundbreaking Rutgers Student Homophile League. The first Blue Jeans Day occurred in 1970 at Rutgers (although the first advertised event happened in 1974). Blue Jeans Day was traditionally held on a Friday in April and, by the late ’70s, had spread to dozens of campuses i ..read more

In keeping with Club Carousel’s birthday theme this month, let’s focus on the Society’s handcrafted monthly newsletter, Carousel Capers. Carousel Capers, the latest release (50 years ago)! This publication, which ran from 1969 to at least 1975, was a hand-typed and drawn affair. In its heyday, it grew to 24+ pages with columns such as Chatter Box, Gertrude’s Gossip, and Cecil’s Secrets. Club business, including attendance figures, budgets, and meeting minutes, was presented—keeping the Club leaders accountable to their membership. Members of Club Carousel had significant fears of being outed ..read more

On the heels of the City of Calgary’s historic designation of Club Carousel, we discovered a remarkable NYC article written about the Club, six months after it opened. It was titled Liberation Canadian Style and published in GAY, New York City’s third post-Stonewall gay newspaper. Started in December 1969 by Jack Nichols and Lige Clarke, GAY’s varied content featured articles written by some of the era’s most significant LGBT rights activists. In September 1970, author John Scarth reported on his trip to Calgary and his experience at the fledgling Club Carousel. Sept. 28, 1 ..read more

The Mount Royal University Archives and Special Collections is proud to announce the launch of its newest acquisition, the Aveline-Vázquez LGBTQ+ Collection. This collection was donated by MRU professor Dr. David Aveline. At the launch, David will speak about his reasons for/experience of building the collection over the past 50+ years, and will discuss how it documents the history of queer communities, activism, and issues throughout Canada and the United States. Archivist Peter Houston will explain how the collection will be made accessible to the MRU community and the wider public, and arc ..read more

MacEwan University is hosting the first National Queer and Trans+ Community History Conference, May 3-4 in Edmonton, Alberta. Registrations are open! See you in Edmonton! The Conference is designed to bring together 2SLGBTQ+ community members, nonprofit organizations, heritage professionals, historians, academics, emerging scholars, and students who have an interest in documenting, preserving, and celebrating diverse and intersectional queer and trans+ histories in Canada. The Conference aims to foster dialogue amongst participants and presenters to explore the latest research, programming, an ..read more