http://www.clga.ca/archives
Newsletter of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives No. 17, November 2001
In this issue:
Lesbian and Gay Archivist is published on an occasional basis by
The Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives
POB 639, Station A
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5W 1G2
416-777-2755
http://www.clga.ca/archives
Editor: Brad Walton,
Layout: Bill Pusztai
Contributors: Lawrence Bennett, Matt Hughes, G.P.King, Corey Clarke, Dave Smith
The mandate of the archives is to collect and maintain information and materials relating to the gay/lesbian/bi/trans movement in Canada and elsewhere, and to make our holdings available to the public for the purposes of education and research.
Located in Suite 201 at 56 Temperance St, Toronto, we are open Tuesday through Friday, 7:30 PM to 10: 00 PM (closed during August).
(photo) CLGA Board members Dave Smith, Cait Ryan and Matt Hughes with Enza.
(photo) Enza Supermodel Anderson with Lawrence Bennett, CLGA volunteer co-ordinator,
at the Garden Party.
by Corey Clarke - On Sunday July 29th, 2001, more than 100 members, friends and volunteers of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives gathered for the Third Annual Garden Party hosted by Harold Wu, Lawrence Bennett and Bill Elliott. The crowd schmoozed over sushi prepared by "Catering for You" and cocktails served (for the third year running) by delicious Enza Supermodel Anderson. Pianist Maria Case set the mood with musical selections wafting through open windows to the crowd below. The afternoon mixed business with pleasure as MPP Bill Graham, a special guest, offered the help of his office in grant writing and advice. Two generous donors are said to have raised their donations by $10,000. The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives wish to thank their hosts for a wonderfully successful event and look forward to the Fourth Annual Garden Party next year.
This is the fifth year of the Richard Plowright Photography Competition and the first year that the CLGA has partnered with the O'Connor Gallery as a sponsor. As some may remember, Richard was a well-known photographer of the male nude who exhibited his work locally and published a book in 1990 titled Himage. The competition honours Richard's memory and gives new photographers an opportunity to exhibit their work to a larger audience. If you would like to submit photography to the competition an entry form can be picked up at the O'Connor Gallery or the CLGA offices. If you're out of town or unable to pick up an entry form, please write to the CLGA. We'll be pleased to send a form out to you.
by Matt Hughes - Our case is known as "Scott Brockie and Imaging Excellence, Inc, vs Ray Brillinger, Past-President of CLGA, the CLGA and the Ontario Human Rights Commission."
The Ontario Human Rights Commission found that Scott Brockie and Imaging Excellence Incorporated did discriminate against Ray Brillinger and the CLGA by refusing to print stationery and envelopes for the Archives. Mr. Brockie was fined five thousand dollars; he is appealing the Commission's decision.
The files and administrative matters in respect to representation of the Archives and Ray Brillinger in the Human Rights Complaint against Scott Brockie and Imaging Excellence Inc. have been transferred from Chris Bondy to David L. Corbett of Eberts Symes Street & Corbett, Barristers and Solicitors. At the moment Karen Spector, who recently joined Eberts Symes Street & Corbett, has been assigned our case. The appeal was perfected on April 23, 2001. Brockie's lawyer also served an amended notice of motion challenging the constitutionality of the Human Rights Code itself on the basis that the Code does not provide for a bona fide defense to a finding of discrimination under Section 1. Consequently, Brockie's lawyer is requesting an order declaring the Code to be unconstitutional and staying the order of the Board of Inquiry to permit the Code to be amended. Since Brockie is challenging the constitutionality of the Code, the Court is required to serve a Notice of Constitutional Question on the Attorney General of Canada and the Attorney General of Ontario to permit them to intervene in this appeal if they so choose. This required notice was served April 30, 2001. Ms Spector is preparing responding materials. On May 23, 2001, two intervenors on behalf of Scott Brockie were granted leave to intervene: (1) The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and (2) Canadian Religious Freedom Alliance (composed of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Catholic Civil Rights League, and the Christian Legal Fellowship). in addition, Egale was granted leave to intervene on behalf of the CLGA. As friends of the court they were restricted to the following terms: (1) That they do not file a factum of more than 20 pages; (2) that they take the record as it exists; and (3) that they file their facta by the end of July and that the Respondents file their facta by the end of September.
"Commission adjudicator MacNaughton found that Scott Brockie... violated
the rights of Ray Brillinger and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives by refusing
to print the group's stationery, envelopes and business cards. She ordered the
company to provide printing services to gays and lesbians and their organizations."
P Gombu, Toronto Star, 3/3/2000
The hearing of this appeal is December 5, 6 and 7, 2001, at 10:00 AM in Courtroom Three at Osgoode Hall, before the Divisional Court.
An area of increasing concern for the Archives is the lack of space in our Temperance Street location. The Operation Committee has been trying to determine ways to save space. In addition, meetings have been held with Dr. David Rayside, Acting Principal of University College, the University of Toronto, to continue discussions begun by Edward Tompkins concerning moving the Archives to the campus of University College at the University of Toronto. Dr. Brian Pronger has joined our Board as a Liaison with the University of Toronto. Discussions are preliminary and on-going. No decisions have been reached by either the University or the Board. The Board is considering two other alternatives: renting a larger space or buying a facility suitable for the Archives. No decision has been made here either. Regardless of where we go, the price tag is high: between $700,000 and $1,000,000!
The following is a summary of the Auditors' Report. A copy of the Auditors' Report is kept in the Archives. Those who wish to see it in its entirety may view it there. Please note that Mr. Paul Li and I announced that the deficit was expected to be about $3,000.00. In fact, it is considerable less.
Matt Hughes
President
|
2000
|
1999
|
||
| Revenues | |||
| Donations |
$49,007
|
$ 33,509
|
|
| Bequests |
4,027
|
1,076
|
|
| Other |
8,224
|
7,795
|
|
| Totals |
61,258
|
42,380
|
|
| Expenses | |||
| Archival supplies |
5,313
|
4,621
|
|
| Fundraising |
4,377
|
4,803
|
|
| Insurance |
11,499
|
1,728
|
|
| Occupancy cost |
32,542
|
35,230
|
|
| Office and general |
3,220
|
1,855
|
|
| Postage |
1,626
|
3,318
|
|
| Special events |
611
|
2,891
|
|
| Other |
2,915
|
4,841
|
|
| Totals |
62,103
|
59,287
|
|
| Excess of Expenses |
845
|
16,907
|
|
| Unrestricted Net Assets Beginning of Year |
98,028
|
114,935
|
|
| Add: Adjustment regarding cash Surrender value of life insurance Policy |
27,977
|
||
| Unrestricted Net Assets End of Year |
125,160
|
98,028
|
|
We have audited the statement of financial position of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives as of December 31, 2000 and the statements of operations, cash flow and changes in net assets for the year then ended.
Arthur Gelgoot and Associates
Chartered Accountants
Sara Ellen Dunlop (d. 1978), activist and musician.
Born and raised in Alabama, Sara Ellen Dunlop became a legendary figure
in Toronto in the early 1960s through her co-ownership with Richard Kerr of
the Music Room and the Melody Room, two of Toronto's earliest lesbian and gay
clubs. She was also the driving force behind the band Mama Quilla. Her company,
Sara Ellen's Music Ltd., was one of the earliest recording companies wholly
owned and operated by women. In June 1975, Dunlop released In the Light,
an extended-play recording of four songs, which was the first product of Sara
Ellen's Homemade Records, a label created by Dunlop and her partner and business
manager Shirley Anne Stonehouse to distribute her own original music. Sara Ellen
Dunlop died of cancer in February 1978.
Michael Lynch (1944-91), teacher, activist, writer.
Michael Lynch was born in North Carolina and moved to Toronto in 1971, where
he became a professor of English at the University of Toronto (to 1990). In
1972 he was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa for his study of the
poetry of Wallace Stevens. Lynch came out as a gay man in 1973 and for almost
twenty years was a leading Canadian gay rights activist and AIDS organizer.
His achievements include teaching New Perspectives on the Gay Experience
(1974), at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, one of the
first gay-themed courses taught at a Canadian university; co-organizing Whitman
in Ontario, a 1980 conference held in Toronto (and sponsored by the Canadian
Gay Archives); receiving the first Crompton-Noll Award from the Lesbian and
Gay Caucus of the Modern Language Association for Here Is Adhesiveness: From
Friendship to Homosexuality, an essay on Whitman; editing the MLA Lesbian
and Gay Caucus's Gay Studies Newsletter (later known as Lesbian and Gay Studies
Newsletter) from 1980 1991, which had a major impact in connecting the growing
network of scholars in the field of lesbian and gay studies; founding or assisting
in the organization of numerous gay organizations in Toronto, including the
Gay Alliance towards Equality (GATE), the (Toronto) Gay Academic Union, the
Committee to Defend John Damien, and Gay Fathers of Toronto; participating in
the editorial collective that published The Body Politic; co-founding
the AIDS Committee of Toronto and serving as chairperson in 1984; originating
the idea of Toronto's AIDS Awareness Week in 1983; co-founding AIDS Action Now!
as well as organizing the Toronto AIDS Memorial; founding the Toronto Centre
for Lesbian and Gay Studies in 1988-89; writing a book of poetry, These Waves
of Dying Friends, published in 1989. Michael Lynch is memorialized by the
Michael Lynch History Grant of the Toronto Centre for Lesbian and Gay Studies
and by the Michael Lynch Service Award of the Lesbian and Gay Caucus of the
MLA.
Douglas Wilson (1950-92), activist, publisher, writer.
Born in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Doug Wilson gained prominence in September
1975 in a fight for gay rights at the University of Saskatchewan. The dean of
the University's College of Education refused to allow Wilson, a postgraduate
student in the Department of Educational Foundations, to go into the school
system to supervise practice teachers because of his public involvement with
the gay liberation movement. Although qualified to do the job, Wilson was disqualified
solely on the basis of his sexual orientation. When the decision was upheld
by the president of the University of Saskatchewan, the Committee to Support
Doug Wilson was formed and generated much support for him across Canada. His
appeal to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission was ultimately unsuccessful,
and by 1976 Wilson and the Committee had abandoned the case.
Doug Wilson's subsequent achievements include founding Stubblejumper Press in
1977, a small press dedicated to publishing works by Canadian lesbians and gay
men; serving from 1978 to 1983 as the executive director of the Saskatchewan
Association on Human Rights, a lobbying group; acting as an advisor in the Toronto
Board of Education's Race Relations and Equal Opportunity Office; co-founding
the Rites Collective, publishers of the newsmagazine Rites: For Lesbian and
Gay Liberation, in 1984; and standing for Parliament as a candidate for
the New Democratic Party in the Toronto riding of Rosedale. Wilson was the first
openly gay candidate to be nominated by a major political party in Canada, but
fell ill during the campaign. He spent the rest of his life as an indefatigable
AIDS activist, co-founding AIDS Action Now! in 1988, and serving as the founding
chairperson of the Canadian Network of Organizations for People Living With
AIDS.
Wilson was involved for more than twelve years in a relationship with singer,
songwriter, and writer Peter McGehee. The author of Boys Like Us, a tragicomic
novel tracing a group of gay male Toronto friends during the AIDS crisis, McGehee
succumbed to the disease in 1991. During his own illness Wilson edited McGehee's
posthumous novel Sweetheart (1992), and one month before his death completed
his first novel (based on McGehee's notes), Labour of Love (1993), the
third volume of the Boys Like Us trilogy.
Know someone who should be nominated? Contact us at the archives!
Asked for his impression of Carla Agnesi, an acquaintance beamed and replied, "An agile sense of humour ... warmly attentive to friendship ... quietly attuned to what matters in life."
A Canadian Studies graduate from Trent University, Carla was born in Pembroke, Ontario. She has been interested in a career as an information professional since 1993, when she was first employed in the field at the Ottawa Public Library. However, it was an internship at the Trent University Archives in 1999 that convinced her to specialize in archival work. "I was engaged with primary documents and rare materials. I learned to arrange and describe archival accessions and I developed a reverence for what makes archives distinct from other institutions. I am interested in organic, vibrant, living information of use to its community rather than the static data of records management. I feel strongly about supporting cultures and communities through my work as an archivist. Information is experiential, and essential to democracy."
While researching an essay for a queer theory course which she was taking at Trent, a university librarian referred her to the CLGA. It was the first time Carla had heard about the Archives.
Wanting to get more archival experience and go to graduate school, and keen to do volunteer work, she moved to Toronto two years ago. "You could say that one of the reasons I moved here was to volunteer at the CLGA. I've learned a lot about the archival field from fellow volunteers who are also employed in the field. The collection at the CLGA is bursting with living information that's used by the community and not just tucked away for posterity. There is a constant demand for specialized information that's not available anywhere else." Currently employed part-time in the radio archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she works on a preservation project, dubbing analog tapes into digital format. And this month she began studies in the archives stream at University of Toronto's Faculty of Information Studies.
What does Carla like about volunteering at the CLGA? "It's a grassroots, volunteer-run organization, It's an excellent resource for cultural research and education. It holds and collects materials for the sake of sharing information, for education; it contributes to community life. The Archives is evidence of a movement and a history. I like that people send in requests from all over the world because the queer community transcends geography. I've learned so much about queer heritage during my time at the CLGA, and about the local movement. It's great to be participating in the preservation of queer history."
by Dave Smith - The CLGA has an impressive collection of photographs which provide a visual history of the gay community in Canada and beyond. This collection is made up of prints, magazines and books, some of which are quite rare and many of which are unique and interesting. In the past many individual researchers have used this valuable resource and, on special occasions, the CLGA has mounted displays of its photographs. It's now time to open up the collection to a wider audience.
Starting on September 14, 2001, the CLGA will open every Friday evening from 7:30 to 9:30 to exhibit selected images from the photography collection. Some selected images will be displayed with informative text. Volunteers will be available to discuss the photography collection. As this is a display night, access to the general collection or the reading room will not be available.
The first display, "The Work of Mark Brickell 1984-1994," will continue through until Friday, November 23, 2001. Born on the West Coast, Brickell completed most of his photography between 1984 and 1994 here in Toronto. The elegant male nudes for which he is best known are classical in composition but have a very modern feel. The CLGA collection consists of work prints, finished prints and some of Brickell's notes and observations. For more information please call the CLGA or visit the CLGA web site.
As part of its celebration of Gay Pride Week, the CLGA, in cooperation with the Sexual Diversity Studies Program at the University of Toronto, sponsored a special presentation of scholarly lectures, jointly entitled Passion in Prose: Love Letters from the Queer Past.
One of the presenters, historian Elise Chenier, has supplied the CLGA Newsletter with a brief synopsis of her lecture All Cats are Grey in the Dark: Sex in Male Prisons.
During a recent research trip to the Kinsey Institute Archives, Chenier uncovered a substantial collection of love letters exchanged between male inmates in a handful of US prisons between the late 1940s and the 1960s. All Cats are Grey in the Dark: Sex in Male Prisons draws on these letters to look beyond the problem of sexual violence and coercion in male prison settings to explore emotional intimacy, a previously unexamined aspect of male inmate culture. Using conventional romantic language marked by intense longing and desire, prisoners' written endearments to each other - penned and delivered at great risk, since communicating with other prisoners in this manner was against prison rules - reveal an undercurrent of tenderness, affection, and passionate love and commitment that defies common perceptions of both prisoners and conventional working and street class masculinity.
More than showing the human side of inmate culture, Chenier used these love letters to examine how gender and sexuality intersect in the deployment of power relations. Although having a 'real' woman (a prison fairy) was highly valued, it enhanced the status of the masculine prisoner, not that of the fairy. Some prisoners, however, who either under coercion or willingly assumed a feminine role, could adopt 'womanly charms' to their advantage. For example, their social location was always second to that of mannish inmates. Chenier concluded with the suggestion that only by engaging with the 'history of emotion' can we discard notions of 'situational homosexuality' and challenge biological claims as the basis of sexual 'orientation.' By recognizing the need for human contact and intimacy in conjunction with the relationship between sex, gender and power can we have a better appreciation of human sexuality.
Kato Perdue presented the second lecture, Dear Lamb, I am at Your Feet. Perdue examined a correspondence which traced the self-discovery of lesbian love in 1920's Toronto. The letters, written by Drs. Frieda Fraser and Edith Bickerton Williams, are stark portrayals of the angst, pleasure and passion of the realization of a love come to life through the written word.
by G.P King - When the CLGA receives new materials, especially published work, we need to validate their relevance to our collection. Part of this validation process involves establishing accurate biographical detail. When formatting subject headings, name authority files or, in some cases, determining if the individual in question is or was openly gay, gay-positive or significantly related to gay history or the current gay community, we need reference sources. To aid us, we have collected a number of excellent volumes that serve as a type of gay Who's Who. A good place to start is the highly authoritative Encyclopedia of Homosexuality published in two volumes by Garland. Noel I Garde's Jonathan to Gide: the Homosexual in History gives us the names and brief biographies of over 300 famous men, all of whom have played important roles in political or cultural history. If the person in question is literary, The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage, published by Henry Holt & Co, provides valuable overviews of the gay and lesbian presence in a variety of literatures and historical periods. One of my favourite sources is The Gay Book of Days by Martin Greif. This volume is an evocative, illustrated Who's Who of who is, was, may have been, probably was and almost certainly was gay during the past 5,000 years. Most recently (August 2001), we have acquired Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History edited by Robert Aldrich and Gary Wotherspoon, and published in two volumes by Routledge. This is our most current and authoritative source. This selection of reference aids is invaluable to us as we work diligently to expand and validate the information in our growing number of databases. Not sure about somebody famous or infamous? Give us a call!
The CLGA needs volunteers!
Committees: everyone can help, whether you live in Toronto or not!
POB 639,Station A,
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5W 1G2
416-777-2755
Sunday December 2 2001, 2 to 5 PM
56 Temperance Street, 2nd floor
Displays and Book Sale
Everyone welcome.
Bring your friends!
We honour Terrence Glover and John Herbert whose personal records have been donated to the Archives.