Queer History Month in Edmonton

Queer History Month in Canada is a relatively recent initiative that aligns with global efforts to recognize and celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ history. Like similar movements in the U.S. and the U.K., the development of Queer History Month in Canada reflects the country’s unique history of 2SLGBTQ+ rights, activism, and social change.

Recently, Edmonton-based organization Rainbow Story Hub Foundation started the conversation of formalizing Queer History Month as a national observance across Canada.

In the meantime, there is growing community momentum to share these stories – including right here, in our city.

Edmonton has often been on the forefront of 2SLGBTQIA+ movements, and once again stands proud to pave the way for recognition of the quiet but impactful ways we – as a city – have driven change and given voice to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

This year, several local organizations have come together to take Queer History Month 2024 to a new level. Here are some of the events you can participate in this month and support the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Edmonton. Take a look into our history, join us for a film or tour, hear new stories, and discover the significant impacts the quiet City of Edmonton has made on Canada’s queer community.

This month isn't only being recognized in Edmonton. To see what else is on in Canada in honour of Queer History Month, you can visit the 2SLGBTQIA+ History Month Canada Facebook Group. Here they will be sharing events happening across the nation all month long.

Thank you to our partners in the 2024 Edmonton Queer History Month Collaborative Group led by the Royal Alberta Museum, Rainbow Story Hub Foundation, Edmonton Queer History Project, the City of Edmonton Public Libraries, the City of Edmonton Public Archives, the Edmonton Heritage Council and their Edmonton City As Museum (ECAMP) project, and the Mitchell Gallery at MacEwan University.

Edmonton Queer History Month Kick-Off

Presented by: Edmonton Heritage Council & City of Edmonton Archives

Location: Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, 10440 108 Ave NW

Join the City of Edmonton Archives and Edmonton Heritage Council as they celebrate the start of Queer History Month in Edmonton! Our friends from the Queer History Project, Rainbow Story Hub, Edmonton Public Library, and Royal Alberta Museum will bring family friendly and engaging activities, share stories, and let you in on what they have planned for the month.

Archivists and curators from organizations around the city will be available to discuss your own Queer History items/collections and how you can best preserve them for the future!

Love in a Dangerous Time Opening Event

Presented by: MacEwan Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, Edmonton Queer History Project, and the MacEwan Library

Location: Heart of the Robbins, Robbins Health Learning Centre, MacEwan University

Date: October 8

The MacEwan Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, in collaboration with the MacEwan Library, invites you to the opening event for Love in a Dangerous Time, a new exhibit from the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. The evening will include a panel discussion featuring Michelle Douglas (Purge survivor and Executive Director of The Purge Fund), John McDougal (Purge survivor and Chair of the Edmonton Police Commission), Antoine Lavoie (organizer of the first Pride Parade held on a Canadian military base and chocolatier), and Michael Phair (local historian and first openly gay elected politician in Alberta).

After the opening event, the exhibit will be housed in the MacEwan Library for a month starting on October 10th.

Love in a Dangerous Time Exhibit

Presented by: MacEwan Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, Edmonton Queer History Project, and the MacEwan Library

Location: MacEwan Library, MacEwan University - 10700 104 Ave NW

Dates: October 10-31

This exhibit will take you back in time with soundscapes, artifacts, images, and video from Canada's past. From the 1950s-1990s, the Government of Canada systematically persecuted 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the public service. Known as “the Purge,” it was an attempt to remove 2SLGBTQI+ people from the workforce, justified by arguments that they presented a threat to national security. In the aftermath, courageous 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians led campaigns to ensure sexual orientation became a protected ground under Canadian human rights law. Their activism led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’ s apology to 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians in 2017. It also led to a class action settlement in 2018 that established the LGBT Purge Fund, which has been working with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to develop an exhibition about this dark period in Canadian history.

Flashback - Documentary Screening and Q&A

Presented by: Royal Alberta Museum

Location: Royal Alberta Museum - 12845 102 Ave NW

Flashback was the Studio 54 of the Prairies, a club that owner John Reid vowed would be a safe place for gay people and their friends. Located in a conservative northern Canadian city often hostile to queer people, Flashback became a sensation on the international club circuit despite police raids, threats of violence and the scourge of AIDS.

Prior to the film Curator Jillian Richardson will be showcasing artifacts from the RAM collection that speak to the history of Flashback the club. This special display will be outside the theatre starting at 5:30 in the RAM 2nd floor lobby space.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Peter Hays, and special guest Ron Byers from Rainbow Story Hub. This film is a finalist in the upcoming 2024 Rosie Awards for Best Documentary Production Over 30 Minutes.

Tickets to the film include RAM Admission. Arrive early to take advantage of your complimentary museum admission and visit the galleries.

Discovering Wallbridge and Imrie Architects: Dr. Sarah Bonnemaison, Dalhousie University

Presented by: Mitchell Art Gallery in partnership with MacEwan Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity

Location: Roundhouse, Allard Hall, MacEwan University - 11110 104 Ave

The MAG in partnership with MacEwan Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (CSGD) presents Discovering Wallbridge and Imrie Architects, a lecture by Dr. Sarah Bonnemaison about architects and life partners Mary Imrie & Jean Wallbridge.

Join them for at Roundhouse Event Space, Allard Hall, on Thursday, October 17 from 5-6 p.m., in conjunction with their exhibition GLAD YOU CLOSER HOME / NEW WHITE WHISKER MARY. This event is free, and no registration is required.

Learn Downtown: Capturing and Sharing Edmonton's Queer History

Presented by: Edmonton Public Library

Location: Stanley A. Milner Library - 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square, Centennial Plaza

Join Queer Historian Ron Byers shares stories in a Powerpoint presentation of these many endeavours from the past and what is visioned for the future. A Q& A session will follow.

Hear how former Edmonton Public Library’s 2018 Writer in Residence Darrin Hagen, began the journey of bringing the history of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to life. Find out what streaming anthology series may bring a dark time in Edmonton’s past to viewers around the world. Hear why Edmonton is the only North American city to have not one but two documentary movies - telling stories of our city's Queer community - currently on the International Film Festival Circuit. The history of the Queer community is usually left in storage rooms and back-room shelves but a team of local folks are working hard to ensure our youth have the resources to learn the work, advocacy and activism that brought them an equality that 60 years ago was denied.

This session is part of Learn Downtown, a City of Learners speaker series offering bite-size learning opportunities downtown. A complimentary lunch will be provided in support by The Downtown Vibrancy Strategy.

GLAD YOU CLOSER HOME / NEW WHITE WHISKER MARY

Presented by: Mitchell Art Gallery at MacEwan University

Location: 11-121, Allard Hall, MacEwan University, 11110 – 104 Avenue Edmonton, AB

Visit Mitchell Art Gallery's current exhibition, GLAD YOU CLOSER HOME / NEW WHITE WHISKER MARY, an immersive exhibition from Cait McKinney and Hazel Meyer, featuring the archives of Mary Imrie and Jean Wallbridge, life partners and founders of the first women-led architecture firm in Canada.

Mary Imrie (1918 - 1988) and Jean Wallbridge (1912 - 1979) operated their architecture firm—the first run by women in Canada—at Six Acres, the home they built for their work and life together overlooking the North Saskatchewan River in west Edmonton. Artists McKinney and Meyer’s collaborative practice is rooted in how queer history lives in research and archives. Their work treats archives as more than places to establish official historical narratives, but as sites for fantasizing, questioning, and feeling amongst objects and ephemera, and the relevance those items hold in our contemporary moment. When drawing from the archive of Imrie and Wallbridge, McKinney and Meyer’s approach to artmaking amplifies the resonance of these lovers and architects’ exceptional lives in ways that documents alone cannot.

This exhibit is free to attend and no registration is required. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 12-5 p.m., with extended hours on Thursdays 12-7 p.m.

Rainbow Story Hub is an online space for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to celebrate, reflect on, and share their stories. 2024 brings a new level of awareness and celebration of Edmonton Queer History Month. Over the month of October, Rainbow Story Hub will bring 9 different stories, perspectives or presentations.

From the AIDS crisis and the front-line view of Dr. Barbara Romanowski to a story on Imrie & Wallbridge, Edmonton’s celebrated Lesbian architects. A new take on the Delwin Vriend case that changed Human Rights legislation across Canada then a fresh view on the Pisces Bathhouse Raid. We also have a video style feature on Edmonton’s infamous drag entertainer Twiggy as well as a relatively unknown chapter that included drag performers, Chez Pierre and the First Baptist Church. Then we finish the month with profiles on two incredible history makers – Senator Dr. Kristopher Wells and Edmonton Police Commission Chair and former CFB member – Retired Major John McDougall.

See their post to read more and find links to our stories when they become available.

Story released on October 3, 2024

A conversation with Dr. Barbara Romanowski – by David Stafford

In 1984 the Edmonton gay community changed forever when the HIV virus found its first victim. Here from the Director of the Alberta STD Program at that time on how life changed, the impacts it had on the medical community and the challenges faced by her and others in educating the public and gay community on HIV/AIDS.

Story released on October 7, 2024 (8th Lesbian Awareness Day)

Let’s Hear It For The Girls: A Lesbian Architecture Romance – by Aldynne Belmont

Did you know some of Edmonton’s most beautiful and iconic buildings were designed by lesbians? Aldynne Belmont takes a look at the life and times of Wallbridge and Imrie.

Story released on October 10, 2024 (11th Coming Out Day)

Coming Out Stories

A collection of short Coming Out stories submitted to us. Read how the coming out experience impacted some in our community. Then consider adding yours to our growing collection.

Story released on October 14, 2024

The Facts in the Case of D. Vriend – by Aldynne Belmont

A landmark case for the history of anti-discrimination in Edmonton and the province at large, the case of ‘Delwin Vriend vs. Alberta’ is as fascinating as it is important. The story of how one man took on the government and won protections for queer people everywhere!

Story released on October 17, 2024

Raid on Pisces Bathhouse — Darkest Before the Dawn – by Aldynne Belmont

One of the single biggest turning points in Edmonton queer history is often forgotten by the rising LGTQ generations. See how a brutal police sting operation allowed Edmonton’s queer community to come together in solidarity.

Story released on October 21, 2024

Forty Years of Fabulous: The Story of Twiggy and Edmonton’s Drag Evolution – by Brendan Roy

In this captivating documentary interview, we sit down with Twiggy, an iconic Edmonton drag queen who has been performing for over 40 years. Twiggy shares her journey from the early days of drag to the vibrant queer scene in Edmonton today. Explore the origins of her artistry, the evolution of drag culture, and the changes within the local LGBTQ+ community through her eyes. This is more than a personal story—it’s a celebration of resilience, creativity, and the enduring spirit of drag.

Story released on October 24, 2024

Sex and Sin in the City of Champions: Chez Pierre and the Battle of 105th Street – by Kyler Chittick

This story focuses on the history of Chez Pierre, a downtown Edmonton cabaret on 105th St. and Western Canada’s longest running strip joint. The club has been a covert safe space for drag queens and exotic dancers since the early 1970s, but was embroiled in some little-known legal battles at a time when the vice unit of the Edmonton police was especially strict in its interpretations of laws governing so-called morality, including obscenity and immoral theatrical performance. The club also battled religious ire, including that of First Presbyterian Church across the street.

Story released on October 28, 2024

From Scholar to Senator: The Incredible Story of Dr. Kristopher Wells – by Kyler Chittick

We look at the life and career of Senator Kris Wells, a mainstay in Edmonton’s LGBTQ community. A previous Canada Research Chair and a founding member of the Edmonton Queer History Project at MacEwan University, Dr. Wells has been a fantastic leader and advocate for our community.

Story released on October 31, 2024

A damn proud gay Canadian Soldier – by Murray Billett

A proud humble young soldier, John McDougall, was arrested for being gay. Thirty-one years later he retires, as a highly decorated, highly respected change agent for our diverse communities across Canada and around the world.