All posts filed under: Gay History

Trans Activism Oral History Project – Marsha Botzer Clip

November 17, 2020
by Andy Huynh
Archiving Oral History / Gay History / Oral History / Trans History

Excerpt from the Trans Activism Oral History Project – Presented in Collaboration with the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory (project lead, Dr. Elspeth Brown), the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria, and The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives. Marsha Botzer (she/her) interviewed by Dr. Evan Taylor (they/them)Original recording using Zoom platform on February 19, 2020 Full interview found here: https://vimeo.com/478929224

A Reflection on The Trans Oral History Panel: Narrative as Trans Worldmaking.

November 3, 2020
by Andy Huynh
Gay History / Oral History / Public Humanities / Trans History

Narrative as Trans Worldmaking”: this concept has been foundational to the multiple projects that were presented on the Friday October 23rd Trans Oral History Panel for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Oral History Association. What this concept aims to convey is that creating a world for trans people begins with trans people telling their own stories. Traditionally, trans people, much like other queer folks, have been expected to self-navigate in the cisheteronormative world that […]

Introducing the Queer View Mirror Oral History Project

July 31, 2020
by Elspeth Brown
Archiving Oral History / Community-based Oral History / Gay History

The LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory is happy to announce the Queer View Mirror Oral History Project! A community-based oral history project led by long-time activist Ed Jackson, Queer View Mirror will focus on collecting oral histories from Toronto lesbian and gay activists involved in 1970s and 1980s activism. The Collaboratory is happy to provide Ed and his project with assistance and student support. Read on to learn more about this exciting project and what […]

Finding the Body in Foolscap

October 30, 2018
by Elspeth Brown
Foolscap Project / Gay History / Oral History

The Foolscap Project consists of a series of oral history interviewees, mostly conducted between 1981 and 1989 by John Grube and Lionel Collier conducted a series of oral history interviews with gay men born in the first half of the 20th century. The project produced over 100 autobiographical interviews. These interviews were invariably informed by conditions contemporaneous to the project: the Stonewall riots, Operation Soap, the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the community and […]

Foolscap Sheds Light on a History of Anti-LGBTQ Police Violence

June 6, 2018
by Elspeth Brown
Foolscap Project / Gay History

The Foolscap Oral History project is a rich collection of over 100 interviews recorded with gay men throughout the 1980s that tells the story of LGBTQ life in Toronto in the pre-Stonewall era. The interviewees of this project cover a wide array of topics in their narratives such as activism, relationships, and social life; together, these stories serve to set the scene for gay Toronto in a time when queer identities were much more marginalized […]