HEADLINE: BC Gay and Lesbian Archives Seeking Missing Link Artifacts
SUBHEADING: The BC Gay and Lesbian Archives asks the community for media related to 2SLGBTQAI+ people living in Vancouver during the 1950’s to complete the local history
DATELINE: Kamloops, BC – March 18, 2024
BODY:
The BC Gay and Lesbian Archive (BCGLA), is reaching out to the local Vancouver community for support in expanding the archives mapping of history during the 1950’s. With their large collection of media documenting the lives of 2SLGBTQAI+ people starting in the 1700’s until present, the BCGLA is reliant on donations from the community for full coverage and further understanding of past and present contexts.
SPOKESPERSON: “Our history as a community, as a minority community, has been heavily under-documented by historians. These are our stories. We have to control the narrative. We have to be the ones who decide what our lives mean, ” said Ron Dutton, founder of the BCGLA and member of the 2SLGBTQAI+. When asked about the importance of the archival process he responded, “While the politics was important and the changes of law were important and the changes in the social fabric mattered, there was a larger story there, which is about people and how they… how they love, how they struggle through their daily lives, how they managed in times that were much more toxic than the world we were in at that point, and it hadn’t ground them up. I wanted to tell their story, I wanted their struggle to be heard, and understood, and honoured.”
BOILERPLATE: The BCGLA is a community archive dedicated to the preservation and accessibility of 2SLGBTQAI+ history. They are located on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) in Vancouver, BC. Beginning in 1976, the archive has amassed over 750,000 pieces of historical records and continues to document the lives of 2SLGBTQAI+ people in the local community.
CONTACT INFORMATION: For more information, contact Carlein Kay, 250-819-8687 or carleinkay@gmail.com
For information about the BCGLA, contact Ron Dutton, 604-669-5978 or rondutton@shaw.ca