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Facts
Land Acknowledgement
The harbour's first human use was of course by the Mi'kmag people probably starting 4000 years ago; they were were semi nomadic and spent the summers near the shores and winters inland where big game was abundant and have a really beautiful language - Algonquian family, verb centered. So "red" is not an adjective, it's a verb, "Being red." And, nouns and pronouns aren't gendered, they're animate or inanimate.
Mi'kmag word for the harbour, Jipugtug / K'jipuktuk, "Great Harbour" anglicized to Chebucto, you'll see the word in a variety of places.
I moved to Halifax about 45 years ago and through a sequence of salacious accidents, got very very connected to the gay community here, very quickly.
The first europeans here were in the 1500s - fishermen and traders; French settlers ("Acadians" - now my partner) starting in the 1600s; 1700s there were many battles between the Acadians and Mi'kmag and British including boats landing here loaded with typhus and typhoid and between that and the battles, the Mi'kmag population was decimated.1.
So here we are at Citadel Hill - historic settler cruising area for 273 years. It should be a national monument! We have a record of soldiers arrested for "Sodomical Practices" from 1752 and 1753.
Citadel Hill - photo op / stop;
So this is a Navy town - Rum, Buggery and The Lash are to be expected, practically required.
That being said, we have had our share of the great Canadian queer witch hunt, now called The Purge.
I'll be mentioning a lot of cruising areas today.
Although Pierre Trudeau asserted in 1969 that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, there are many reasons why men who desired sex with men would not do that; they may have been married, they may not have been out and couldn’t out themselves to roommates, neighbours, family etc; or - if they were military members or associated with one - they could be being watched by the military.
We have a Nova Scotian who literally wrote the book on this as well - GaryKinsman.
Who here is familiar with Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey?
AIDS Educator JJ Lyon: "We at the AidsCoalition needed to reach men who had sex with men, and so many of those are not connected in any way with the community. So I wanted to make a TV ad, of driving around The Hill, because that's all that most of the MSMs in Halifax were familiar with. "
He didn't get his TV ad.
“The Village” 1km north:
Rumours - second incarnation (we'll walk by the first one later)
the city's *second* bath house 2003 - ca. 2020
RaymondTaavel’s murder
Bus Stop Theatre, a hundred seat theatre with lots of Q programming
Marshalling area for Pride Parades
Morton House, an AIDS hospice created astonishingly quickly in 1988
East Corner of the commons: MargotDurling's "Chosen Family" sculpture on the far side of The Commons
South on Brunswick to the Library.
Walk towards the Central Library
Cambridge Military Library: splendid "Men's Club" archetype inside
Old Library: was the burying ground for the city poor house; there are ... probably about 20,000 people buried here and there and there.2
Nova Scotia Technical College
Face South:
Forrest House, a Women's Place, one of two women's centers which was used for lesbian organizing. In the late 1970s many women felt that they weren't being represented well at the community owned bar.
Unitarian Universalist Church - minutes welcoming Q folk in for meetings 53 years ago - at a time when most churches didn't consider us even human.
Face WEST.
TheHeidelberg - gay hangout mid-late 1970s. When a couple of local (would become) activists were kicked out for dancing together, things started to gel up to have our own bar.
The short lived LeCruz
A variety of coffee shops
Face west:
City Library
Then go into the Library - 4th floor
Walk down Spring Garden to just above Barrington (it's noisy)
Blowers Street: CafeQuelqueChose and PineausCafe. So we have way fewer bars and restaurants and organizations these days. Is this the result of winning so many battles?
GreenLantern Building: for a few years during the 1970s, this was an almost entirely queer buildiing: "Club 777", the first gay bar. We have quotes from people saying it opened further north on Barrington on New Years Eve 1970. It was on the top floor, gay bookstore below that, and Q folk "camping" in office suites in between. And the venue for early GAE meetings, and the GayLine.
Apollo Bath building
After we had to leave The Turret building, Rumours, down one street.
Left / progressive bookstore. Red Herring Bookstore Again this is not an American "bookstore." This was a store that sold serious books and magazines, not pornography. They were constantly, valiantly in battle with Canada Customs
GayLine - created very shortly after the organization in 1972. also funded by GAE and and then funded by bars for many years after, which ran continously for 24 years.
At the turn up Prince
The Carleton, built in 1760 as a private home, a century later converted to a hotel, then a century later to restaurant and bar.
Back that way is Pizza Corner, which if you are in Halifax and haven't had a donair, you should try. They are not in any way like doner kebabs although they look similar.
The JuryRoom. In 1977 they decided to exclude the "undesirable" people. Like all oppression of our community, this was a catalyzing moment - I'll tell you about an earlier one, later.4
Venus Envy Are any of you Americans? The word "bookstore" has a totally different connotation. Our current Q book and toy store. It's super classy - here are some bookmarks. They also are actively support the Q community in a variety of ways
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