DanielMacKay

Daniel MacKay

pic2018-02

I was born in the early 1960s at the very southernmost tip of Nova Scotia; a decade later my family moved to Bridgewater — halfway to Halifax and in 1981 the rest of the way go to King's College.

About a year later, as a result of several happy and salacious accidents, I met my would-be partner of 25 years, NorvalCollins and got dunked into local gay culture, including helping build the interior of Rumours on Granville Street in 1983.

In the late 1980s I took over publishing what had formerly been the house organ of GAE, the GAEZETTE, which we the collective renamed to WayvesMagazine. The two papers together had a 25 year run as a paper magazine, and it is now alive, online.

For a decade starting in 1989, I was on the team that built the Internet in Canada, and then a computer networking and databases consultant for another, then sales & service of solar energy equipment and heat pumps; I've been on the board of Solar Nova Scotia, the low-carbon advocacy and education organization, since the mid-1980s and its webmaster since there was a web. In 2019 I delivered a lecture series around Nova Scotia, on how homeowners can get solar energy for their homes.

I was a friend-of but not a card carrying member of (all of these are defunkt - maybe there's a message here) BluenoseBears, GaeGala, GayLine, MacLeather, and SafeHarbourChurch, OverThirtiesGroup; Norval & MikeTeal and I joined TightRope on November 24, 2001. Starting in 2000, I started working on what you're looking at, the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia. I’ve been on the board of the ElderBerries since its inception in 2012. Somewhere In between I was on the board of Halifax Pride for a decade and was chair for three years.

As of 2018 I've been partly retired and have made Q history and the RainbowSeniorsArchive work my main passion and in early 2023, fully restarted Wayves Magazine online. Here's my home page; here's my Facebook.

Journalism is the first rough draft of history.1

My Current Projects

Back Burner

picHonourary Parade Marshall 2012

2008
Recipient of Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project's first Community Hero Award.
Xtra! Article here, : Here's DeniseHolliday interviewing KevinKindred about it. Denise also talks about the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia.
Pic from the event with me and Parker Barss Donham
October 7, 2009
On Page 3 of FrankMagazine. No notes about what the article was about, just a comment, "Sorry, no dirt there."
October 23, 2010
Was a Living Book at the Acadia University event. Book title: Herding Cats: Volunteers in Activism & Publishing The Queer Community
June, 2011
Joshua Rozovsky says I was quoted in Xtra!
October 7, 2011
Interview with The ChronicleHerald's PeterDuffy?, "Trying to understand the gay world"
2012
Halifax Pride Parade Honourary Marshall.
Also in 2012: ISCANS Lifetime Achievement Award
June 25, 2018
On the cover of the Bangor Daily News
2019
Provincial Queer Archivist with the RainbowSeniorsArchive
2021
Elders Coordinator with HalifaxPride
May, 2021
Research Assistant for the Dalhousie SHaG? (Sexual Health and Gender) lab, on the Indigenous Boys & Men project -- facilitating intergenerational dialog to better sexual health and all health
August 6, 2021: Dan's house on the front page of the real estate section of the Globe and Mail
August 25, 2021 : Another biiiiig article about me by Brandon Young in the Saltwire community papers: The Clayton Park Wire, The Halifax Wire, The South Shore Breaker, and The Southwest Wire. the article is here. There are a few errors: My dad was really the handyman for the lesbian publishers; Aunt Mimi should Aunt Maymie ("Maymie & Tessa"); should be “first attended New Germany Rural High School, then Parkview Education Centre"; and: I did not study journalism at Kings.
November 23, 2022
Following the Colorado Springs Club Q shooting, RebeccaRose and Daniel were interviewed by Alex Mason of Halifax CBC Mainstreet about historical queer spaces in Halifax.
May 25, 2023
Dan is interviewed by Jeff Douglas of CBC Mainstreet about activism and the GaeGala Memorandum of Association filed 50 years ago today
June 20, 2023
Dan is interviewed by Jeff Douglas of CBC Mainstreet about the vast number of events coming up for this years' PrideCelebrations
July 19, 2023
Dan is interviewed by Jeff Douglas of CBC Mainstreet about doing oral histories and and a bit about this years' PrideCelebrations. Includes a CBC clip from TommyBurns, and recordings from the Storytelling Salons by JJLyon, RosiePorter and MikeDaviesCole.
July 20, 2023
Dan is interviewed by Eilish Bonang of Global News Morning about Pride 2023.
July 21, 2023
Dan and MorganManzer are interviewed by Vanessa Wright of Global News about Pride 2023. There's a screen grab of this this video here too.
July 21, 2023
Dan is interviewed by Paul Legere of CBC's Le téléjournal Acadie about the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia.
August 10, 2023
CBC Information Morning with Portia Clark interview about church-phobia in the Q community.
October 15, 2023
Did a walking tour of historical Q Halifax for a conference of museum / librarian academics
October 23, 2023
Interviewed by Meghan Daine-Richard about gay stuff in my life and activism (pdf, 5 pages)
May 17, 2024
a Book in the Human Library celebrating HEAL NS's Day Of Queer Joy at the Halifax Central Library. Here are my notes.
July 17, 2024
Interviewed about Pride on CBC. Audio here (mp3, 11 minutes) The recordings here are from the OralHistoryCategory.
November 1, 2024
Dan elected to the inaugural board of the Senior Pride Network Canada, a new national non-profit organisation, to bring together, advocate for, and advance the interests of older, senior and elder 2SLGBTQI+ (2-Spirited, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex and others) people across Canada.

Contact

mailto:av231@chebucto.ca

Footnotes:

1. attributed to lots of people.