AlStewart

February 2002

Alan Roy Stewart

May 8, 1942 - June 10, 2020

Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Al and his mom spent a year in Toronto when he was a teen. He attended Mount Allison University in Sackville for a BA in Pre-Theology Philosophy & Classical History. He joined the Canadian Navy and was very proud of his time in service.

Al came out when he was 391. After the Navy, Al ran a motorcycle shop - City Cycle on Gottingen Street, worked at the Better Business Bureau, Rumours, the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission and finally worked at the Halifax Courthouse from 1995 until his retirement at age 61.

Al had a slew of volunteer activities, including Clerk Of The Course at what was then Atlantic Motorsports Park in Goffs, east of the Halifax Airport. In our community, he was involved with GAE & GALA, was the coordinator of the Over Thirties social group, TightRope, MacLeather, MacAIDS, the AIDS Quilt vigils, NSGEU activism; he was president of one of the locals, a Justice of the peace, and he married a few local gay couples.

He was involved with the United Church LGBT group Affirm and later was an elder at, and intrinsic in getting Affirming -- that is, welcoming to LGBT folk -- status for St John's United Church in Halifax's north end. While at St John's, Al got the church bells working again after decades of disuse, and took great pleasure in playing them every Sunday. there's a picture of him playing them here.

Al met Mike Sangster in 1995 when Al as working the door at Rumours and Mike was on the GaeGala Board. They were together until the end; Mike was at his side when Al passed to the next world at Dartmouth General Hospital at age 78.

May 8, 2020

Posted that it was his birthday on the Turret Memories Facebook group. Best wishes from GerryJones?, ScotLingley?, RobinMetcalfe, RegGiles, LarryBaxter, BarryHeath, BarbaraSawatsky?, AnitaMartinez, and DavidUpham?

Al Stewart, left, Halifax Pride 2005

Oral History with Don Goss

On January 31, 2016, DonGoss? did an oral history with Al and MikeSangster.

Here's the recording of the interview. Warning: Al has a wicked sense of humour and does not hesitate to pull the interviewer's leg.

And here's an index of what hey talk about, prepared by DanielMacKay and PoppyRiddle.

• 0:04 Coming out, and not. "I was a late bloomer to activism". Came out in 1981.
• 0:05 Relationship with partner MikeSangster, discusses not being married, length of relationship
• 0:09 Teenage years in Yarmouth. Music: Yarmouth Citizen's Band, trombone, United Church Choir, Organist at Faith United Church in Hebron.
• 0:10:40 Family, cooking
• 0:12 After high school: Mount Alison in Sackville NB, BA in Pre-Theology Philosophy & Classical History. Met GaryBrooks? there, then.
• 0:13 Summer jobs, early career
• 0:14 the Navy, Sea Cadets, Far East deployment, duties. Early 1980s- motorcycle shop
• 0:17 Motorcycle shop: the Bee Hive, then City Cycle, owning motorcycles
• 0:20 Being Clerk of the Course for motorcycle racing at Atlantic Motorsports Park, exiting the cycle shop
• 0:21:30 Story about prostitutes hanging around the shop, "Hooker" brand exhausts, that picture made it into Playboy Magazine
• 0:25 Cruising at TheTriangle & TheMeatRack. What The Meat Rack was like.
• 0:26 The Turret - accidentally seeing people you already knew in non-gay contexts there including childhood friend JackSwain?
• 0:27 More occupations: Better Business Bureau, worked at Rumours, the Liquor Commission, court house job offered by TerryDonohue?, from 1985 until retirement at age 61.
• 0:30 What was your favourite job? The Navy - except for the politcs. All the good things about the Navy. Seeing Pope Paul VI, being carried by "Husky Swiss Guards"
• 0:33 High School. Mother gave him a warning about the grade school principal, "don't be friendly with him". Woman up the street who dressed like a man. High School.
• 0:36 Navy - this is where I started thinking about things. Coming out. Stonewall.
• 0: 39 LGBT activism - or not. Buchanan stalling on the Human Rights Act
• 0:40 Getting involved with the community. GaeGala. MikeSangster was on the board, Al was not. What was the community like at the time? Pride March with people wearing paper bags. MikeSangster was one of the paper bag organizers.
• 0:41 Getting involved with [[Affirm?]] the United Church LGBT group with StJohnsUnitedChurch. "Even people who voted against [becoming Affirming] decided they could live with it, except for one person.
• 0:44 CBC's Don Conolly: "Do you ever think the United Church will ordain gay people?" "Not in my lifetime."
• 0:45 the Anglican Church & Nigeria
• 0:46 Mike was part of GAE. Rumours, The Turret. "The woman MikeSangster 'married', JaneKansas, shut down Rumours & GALA
• 0:48 Met Mike while Al was working the door at Rumours and Mike was on the Board
• 0:49 Kids these days don't know the struggles, the beatings, Stonewall, evictions, firings. They should have an understanding of their history.
• 0:51 Pause
• 0:51 The early days of the Pride *March* not Pride *Parade* Was on the organizing committee for the first 5-6 years, in charge of Parade Marshalls. Police participation. "There's always been a good relationship with them." Homophobia during the March. Being called names and the police protecting them.
• 0:55 DonGoss? story about a March in Sydney and homophobia there.
• 0:56 WormwoodsDogAndMonkeyCinema, showing 'The Last Temptation of Christ'. StJohnsUnitedChurch study group went to it.
• 0:57 location of Rumours at the 2112 Gottingen
• 0:58 The beginning of AIDS. AIDS Committee "It came along right after I came out. It wasn't my fault." The reasons for the split between MacAIDS and the PWA Coalition, the activist group. Pushback while handing out leaflets at Rumours. CARAS and the hostel MortonHouse
• 01:02:00PWA Coalition's hostel
• 01:02:00 Effects on their lives from AIDS
• 01:02:00 Roommate with AIDS, the hospital room, signage about AIDS, fear, Haitians, hemophiliacs
• 01:03:45"The gay disease' / GRID: Gay Related Infectious Disorder
• 01:04:00 bisexual community, blood donations issues
• 01:05:00 Canadian Blood Services issues
• 01:09:00 GaeGala - 'a big dust up between gay men and gay women'
• 01:09:45 Closure of Rumours
• 01:11:00 conflicts at Rumours of going shirtless, ShirtlessnessDebate, leather, queens
• 01:12:45 dressed as nuns, MarilynLamb?, manager of Rumours
• 01:14:26 TightRope, Men's leather brotherhood, Leather community; original name: “Leather and Lace”; RobinMetcalfe shows up at Rumours - leather slingshot "all hell broke loose"
• 01:16:00 CarolAdams as DJ at Rumours
• 01:17:00 EgaleCanada Halifax, PurplePenguin, 'Daryl's place', 'Stonewall', OverThirties?, why its previous incarnation stopped; barring people; transgender member
• 01:20:25 TightRope - end due to controversy with president
• 01:22:30 Pride Parade Feelings about, the route, first year with a Metro transit bus, 1994 or 1995, a joint project with AffirmUnited, the AidsCoalition, NSGEU/Nova Scotia Government Employees Union and the transit union. 'in a sense it was the first float' AirenAntle? drove the bus, decorated, "was in charge."
• End at 1:26:13

This page is in the OralHistoryCategory