Can I say this? Is it a betrayal? I’ve found myself asking these questions a few times since fellow oral historian, Alisha Stranges, and I wrapped up the interviewing phase of the Pussy Palace Oral History Project (PPOHP). Interviewing queer and trans elders, especially those that were part of such a radical chapter of Toronto’s LGBTQ+ history, was one of the most amazing experiences afforded me as both a scholar and a young queer person. […]
When I began planning this blog series in January 2022, I started by imagining the kinds of people I hoped might contribute to the series. From the infancy of this project, I knew that I wanted to talk to Mardi. Mardi Pieronek, known as @mardipantz on TikTok, the social media and video hosting platform, began her “teen transsexual experience” in 1977 at 15 years old. Novel, I know. People often say that all of our […]
While I was in San Francisco for the Queer History Conference last week, the conference organizers planned a social event in The Castro District, the city’s epicenter of LGBTQ+ life. As I was putting on my slacks and the dress shirt I packed, looking professional but still very queer, I had a change of heart. Instead, I opted for baggy jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap. I wasn’t going to the event. I ventured […]
Mainstream conversations discussing the LGBTQ2S+ community’s physical and social relationship to their city often consider homeless youth, or the history that defines our roots. Yet, not very often do people consider the folks who lived through that history and where they may be today. Before engaging in this project, I had never considered the fact that Canada’s current aging population is the first generation of individuals who are reaching their senior years as openly LGBTQ2S+. […]
I had been on testosterone for one month when I did my first Pussy Palace Oral History Project (PPOHP) interview. I remember Alisha Stranges, the co-oral historian, hitting record on the Zoom interview and thinking to myself, “that’s it. This version of you, one that will eventually be unrecognizable to you, is going to be archived.” At the beginning of every interview, I would think a different version of that thought; this went on for […]
Reposted from April 16, 2021. Did you know that the 2000 Pussy Palace had an instant photo room? On the fourth floor of the Palace, a sign reading “porn/photo room” directed patrons in two equally playful directions: towards a room for screening pornography and/or towards a room for having Polaroids taken to document one’s night at the bathhouse (Blair 163; Vogels paras. 10-13). In our most recent oral history interview, Carlyle Jansen, one of the founding members of the Toronto Women’s […]