Presented at the CSDH/ACCUTE session at Congress 2014, Brock University.

1. Visualizing Gay Liberation in Canada:
Using Digital Tools to Represent
Identity
Michelle Schwartz
Ryerson University
@MichelinaNeri
Constance Crompton
University of British Columbia, Okanagan
@CLKCrompton

2. Lesbianand Gay LiberationIn Canada:
A SelectedAnnotatedChronology,1964-1975
• lgl

3. EncodingLesbianand Gay LiberationIn
Canada in TEI

4. Bibl
Bibl
Bibl
Bibl

5. Bibl
Bibl
Bibl
Bibl
Information to
capture
• Names
• Pseudonyms
• Dates
• Places
• Publications
• Organizations
• Protests
• Legislation

6. LGLC Appendices
Gay organizations
(now includes political
parties and homophobic
organizations)
Bars and clubs
(expanded to
include almost
anything with
geographic
coordinates)
Canadian
LGBT Periodicals
(now all inclusive)

7. Analyzing LGLC data

8. The people of LGLC, Vol. 1
The people of LGLC:
There are 2596 names listed, 1184 of these are within event records and 1402 are
within bibliographical records. 1076 of these are unique names.
There are 145 people that appear in both the bibls and the events:
(some examples: James Egan, Jane Rule, Norma K. Mitchell, Réjane Rancourt, Thérèse
Limoges, John Alan Lee, Douglas Sanders, Gary Nichols, Michael Hanlon, Marie
Robertson, George Stanley, Christine Bearchell…)
The most prodigious writers cited in the bibls:
1. Gary Kinsman (56) – The Regulation of Desire: Sexuality in Canada
2. Ron Dayman (43) – Body Politic, CLGA
3. Margaret Fulford (31) – The Canadian Women's Movement, 1960-1990
4. Ken Popert (27) – Body Politic
5. Ian Young (27) – UTHA, Catalyst, Body Politic

9. The people of LGLC
Force Atlas visualization in Gephi

10. The people of LGLC

11. The people of LGLC
The John Damien case in Neo4j

12. Future directions: Identity
“For anyone who wants
to know what it is to be a
lesbian, this book offers
as many answers as
there are voices to
speak… no view need
cancel another, for this is
an exploration into
variety rather than a
thesis to prove my
particular.”
– Jane Rule, Lesbian
Images, 1975

13. Future directions: Identity
“Gay in the Seventies, ” Weekend Magazine,
Globe and Mail, Dec. 17, 1977
“…they wanted ‘just average gay people,’ nobody who worked
with an exclusively gay business, nobody who was a ‘professional
homosexual’ (?), and nobody who was unemployed. All very
respectable.” – Body Politic, Feb. 1, 1978

14. Future directions: Identity
“Gay in the Seventies, ” Weekend Magazine,
Globe and Mail, Dec. 17, 1977
“All busy little gay activists. Why are these people smiling?
Take a guess.” – Body Politic, Feb. 1, 1978

15. Future directions: Identity
Christine Bearchell
Office worker, Toronto
Konnie Reich
Photolab technician, Toronto
- Weekend Magazine, 1977

16. Future directions: Identity
Chris Bearchell
Dyke dynamo… member of the Lesbian
Organization of Toronto, the Gay Alliance
Toward Equality, the Gay Offensive Collective,
and… the BODY POLITIC FREE THE PRESS FUND.
She usually writes the “Dykes” column in the
Body Politic.
Konnie Reich
Active with Lesbian Organization of Toronto and
a member of the Gay Offensive Collective –
they’re putting together a cable TV program
called “This Program may be Offensive to
Heterosexuals.” – The Body Politic, 1978

17. Future directions: Identity
Christine Bearchell
LOOT, GATE & its Damien Committee; TBP
writer from 1975, collective member 1978-87;
later with the sex-workers' right group
Maggie's.
Konnie Reich
LOOT, the Gay Offensive Collective; lover & later
longtime group housemate with Chris Bearchell
– Rick Bébout, 2003

18. Future directions: Identity
MARC Authority Fields
100 – Personal name
370 – Associated place
371 – Address
372 – Field of activity
373 – Associated group
374 – Occupation
375 – Gender (and dates applicable)
377 – Associated language
386 – Creator/Contributor Characteristics
400 – Alternate names
997 – Dates (lived, circa, flourished)
375 ##$amale$s1926
375 ##$afemale$s1972?
386 ## $m Sexual orientation group $a Lesbians
386 ## $m Gender group $a Women

19. Future directions: Public knowledge

20. Future directions: Public knowledge

21. With thanks to Don McLeod, Travis White, CWRC, and the CDH.
Keep in touch!
Michelle Schwartz: @MichelinaNeri
Constance Crompton: @CLKCrompton