2025 RadPride QueerLiberationPanel

Rad Pride Queer Liberation Panel 2025

RadPride 2025 event

My name is JacqueDesLauriers? and I am part of a group of people working to come up with some rad/alt pride events to counter corporate pride and bring this time of year - and the outpouring of love and rage that comes with it - back to the community.

I am writing to you today as one of the events I would like to make sure happens is a talk (or two) on queer history, both in the 20th century local context and in the more classical history sense, all in an attempt to say "we have always been here". I am seeking panelists for an online talk in July - though not necessarily during the city's Pride week, depending on peoples' schedules and availability. I am hoping to find people to speak who can speak to queer-of-color, lesbian, and/or transgender experience in Halifax (or Nova Scotia more broadly) the 20th century. I am in contact with a member of the gay men's community already, and would like to showcase whatever diversity may exist in our little city's history.

Session 1: 2025-07-08: Local Queer History

Zoom event

This evening's panel will be primarily Q&A style. After a brief introduction, our panelists will give us a bit of an overview on their part in the queer activist scene, after which we will move on to some questions our moderators have prepared for the evening. Once those questions have been answered we will open the floor to attendees. There will be time at the end if speakers or attendees would like to exchange contact information.

Panel: VidaJackson?, RobertWright, RobinMetcalfe. Moderator: JaqueDesLauriers?

About 20 guests dropped in and out during the 2-hour session.

Audio is here. (mp3, 128 min)

Contents

• 0:00:00 Jaque: introduction
• 0:02:00 Self Introductions
  • 0:02:01 Robert’s
  • 0:02:42 Vida, mentions WomenNextDoor, Rainbow Camp
  • 0:03:15 Robin
• Deeper Introductions: When and how were you active in the community? What are some of the groups you worked with and roles you played before the turn of the 21st century?
  • 0:04:48 Robert
  • 0:09:03 Vida
  • 0:15:07 Robin
• What things going on now are most reminiscent of the past?
  • 0:31:22 Robert A lot of the really notable black queer folk went to Montreal, Toronto to live their black, queer lives - with exceptions - the Lorne Izzards s of the world, and the Gloria Bordens. But, queer young black people are having the same problems integrating with their community as queer young white people had 30 years ago. And WalterBorden. But we can see that changing, we can see folk asserting themselves in both communities now. Black queer folk will be leaders of the black emancipation movement, we see the church being marginalized, and we can see pushback from elders.
  • 0:41:44 Vida: Decimation of number of foster homes in the last few years = reduction of diversity. Change in motivations - why people wanted to foster. Media representations of queer life were sad, tragic, depression but Pandora and DebbieMathers?, and SheBop? dances were key in keeping things positive. [[SheBop_dances?]], RainbowCamp? [maybe the FamilyPrideCampingAssociation] , WayvesMagazine - was a key resource but was found on the top shelf of the porn section of the local bookstore! We’ve lost community at the grass roots. Getting pregnant as a queer couple, SueMacKay? & Nancy as pioneers for that. Taking our rights for granted, and how ephemeral those can be. Her son not welcome at the Michigan Women’s Festival.
  • 1:02:07 Robin: A tradition at the time: going to Montreal to party. Difficulties of being black AND queer. The idyllic situation before 1933 in Germany - described in his lecture which can be found here. Progress is not steady. Unlike non-queer kids, we don’t learn our culture from our parents. It’s a shock for young people to see how quickly our rights can be rolled back, but there are many historical precedents. For us elders it’s less scary because we were already there - and won. We lived through a time when politicians suggested everyone who was HIV+ got a tattoo or be sent to a gulag. It’s important to have organizations that are “Big Tent” - we have lots of very specialized organizations. It’s easy to want to focus on one thing at a time. But we can’t just do one thing at a time. E.g. we need solutions that are global - soverign AND less dependent on fossil fuels. And there’s no party that has a vision for that.
  • 1:20:23 Robert: It is possible that it’s impossible to make a “Big Tent Organization.” But if it’s possible, it is the responsibility of those in the centre of the tent, to make the tent big enough for those on the margins. The marginalized people should not be asked to do this, to barge in. Very often my queer community is asking for a black person to show up, or it’s the black community, asking for the queer person to show up. It’s unlikely that we’re going ever appeal to a single model of prosperity and belonging. Story about a Polieve rally where he was telling his immigrant supporters that we had to reign in immigration - and they were OK with that because they were (literally) already inside the tent.
  • 1:29:57 Robin: Bernice Johnson Reagon, 1982, a talk: “the space of coalition. this is a comfortable space for you, it is not for me. You have to go into a space that is not comfortable for you.”
• 1:32:24 Tactics & Strategies
  • 1:33:04 Vida: There is a major discrepancy in the way women’s work and mens’ work is recognized. For example, the WomenNextDoor have been doing concerts for the last 32 years, we’ve shown up at TakeBackTheNight, AIDS Vigils. We’ve just shown up for 32 years. Halifax Gay Men’s Choir ‘’’started’’’ because this event was coming. Our events are free. Their events are 25-50$. There’s a divide in the queer community in how we see work that’s done between the women’s community and the mens’ community. The Halifax Chamber of Commerce gave an award for bringing business to Halfiax… and they honoured the Halifax Gay Men’s Choir for bringing Unison to the city, and its leader got the award. Vida gives some insights why this injustice happens. This is an inequity that is not challenged in our community., and it needs to be.
  • 1:42:54 Robert: This is exactly what needs to be discussed at a Rad Pride conversation.
  • 1:44:04 Robin: agreed. “Women’s work” is a thing - where men are not stepping up to do their part. This also maps onto the idea that cultural workers are very often asked to do things for free. We should include thinking about compensating people for their work.
  • 1:50:27 Robert: White privileget is an artifact of history. It doesn’t send you to heaven or hell. What does, is what you do with that privilege. If I choose to not advocate for a community because it may disrupt my privilege, I have just purchased a ticket to hell.
  • 1:55:30 Robin: Privilege: we don’t have privilege. Privilege has us. We need to understand where we are, and how we got here.
  • 2:00:19 “How do you know that someone is not influenced by privilege?” Robin: I mean, we need to be aware, you’re shaped by, the circumstances of your birth. Robert: Just as a white person could say, “I would like to see racism destroyed because I would like to live in that better world.”
• 2:04:27 Discussion of promotions of the event, and closing remarks by Jaque

Session 2: 2025-07-16: Corporate pride sponsors & oppression