2012-01-20 DanielMacKay speech

Speech by DanielMacKay on January 20, 2012 on accepting the ISCANS Lifetime Achievement Award.

Thank you ISCANs and selection committee for considering me for an award. I was speechless when Nathan1 told me about it in mid-December.

But, I'm not speechless now. I have it right here.

First of all, as I said when I got the NSRAP Community Hero Award in 2008, I really do not feel like I deserve this alone. I always work with a team of smart, funny, well-read, hard-working people. I love doing volunteer work in our community. It puts me in contact with the best people in our community. I hope that everyone else who does volunteer work feels the same way.

I could not have done half of the stuff that I did, or make even a reasonable number of reasonable decisions, without my man, my mate, my partner Gabe [Saulnier] to listen when I rant and some time later, when I've calmed down, offers beautifully thought out suggestions.

First of all I'm going to follow MissVicki's lifetime format and flog a couple of my favourite causes:

• The ElderBerries: for senior LGBT folk, that is, over 50, social events. if you know any lonely queers - send them here and also buy a cookbook.
• The LGBT history project: we need people who were around during the beginning of the community - the early '70s - to tell their stories. Please encourage anyone you know. And if you have recollections about the community in the '70s and '80s - make a recording, or write them down. I have a place for them in the encyclopedia. There's a place for every person, place, thing and event, ever, there. You know, history, too is a little like what Harvey Fierstein said about drag queens and oil paintings. Sometimes you have to step back a few paces to really appreciate them.
• And of course, Wayves. We need more dedicated people to help produce the magazine. No experience necessary, just regular volunteer work. We can find work for you, you can make the world better.

Story: JimDeYoung's place. Who here remembers Jim DeYoung?

Jim made up a drag name for me - Rosanna Rosannadanna. I never understood that and I never used it but it has stuck with me … like a piece of clothing that doesn't fit you but you think it might some day.

Let me remind you of some context: it was 1982, people were getting beaten up quite regularly on the Hill and in other cruising areas (catalog on request) you would not think of going to the police for that or for being called fag there of in the street, from the other side , on your side, or from a car. There were a few kinds of jobs where you could be out, there were a lot of jobs where you could be fired for being gay.

So, anyway, on a Saturday night, there would be a sort of a "party" at Jim's place. Hands up, people who have an idea of the kind of party. Mmm hmm. It would rage on late into the night.

The next morning - some time before the crack of noon, anyone left around the apartment would get dressed up and dolled up and we'd go out. And we'd walk, me, and a small group of drag queens, up Barrington Street, past the Turret, and to the restaurant at the top floor of the Delta Halifax. I think it was called Edward and Julie's - is that right?

And, that experience -- of being on the street, in the restaurant, with a bunch of screaming queens who didn't even NEED to say, "Don't fuck with us" - with all of of us watching out for each other, that got me started in a life of being out and proud.

You know, the drag community in Halifax has been studied a few times. The studies were looking at how much the drag community formed a family, possibly to replace a family that was alienated by you coming out or performing drag. After spending some time reading the theses, the theme that comes through is that there is a sort of a family there, but not a uniformly happy one, not a Leave It To Beaver family, but one with its ups and downs and clashes and redemptions. Just like a real family.

So, in working with the community for thirty years, I've seen lots of things come and go. We've seen homophobia mostly go, we've seen the community owned bar go; we've seen human rights for LGBT come in as a result of efforts starting fifty years ago. Many of us have said goodbye to many of our friends. Some would say we've all witnessed the lgbt community as a such, disappear. One thing though, has been steady throughout the years. Despite squabbles and bitchyness, despite differences in taste and principles and ideology, the solidarity of the drag family has been there, and there's every indication that it'll be here for decades to come.

Thank you.